Rule of Law

Baroness Whitaker Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Whitaker (Lab)]

My Lords, after that brilliant maiden speech from my noble and learned friend Lady Smith of Cluny, who is not in her place at the moment, and so many learned speeches from eminent colleagues, including a notable one from the noble Baroness, Lady Laing of Elderslie, I speak with trepidation as a non-lawyer. I brave myself to do this because I believe law is for people, and lawyers are its distinguished engineers, if I may say so. I have two very simple points—I hope not embarrassingly simple: first, to repeat, the rule of law is essential to democracy, but democracy also requires a framework of human rights; secondly, this is a package that should be taught in schools as part of instilling that culture. I declare an interest as an advisory board member of the British Institute of Human Rights.

I want to try to explain my lay man’s view of the first point. Our democracy is based on our consent to various rules. We consent that their principles apply to all of us. They are the law. These conform to the norms of the time, and if we think the law has not caught up with changing norms we can influence or elect a Parliament which promises changes. If we think any of these rules have been broken to our detriment, we can have recourse to the law for a remedy. So far, so obvious. For that law to be fair, it must accord with a system that takes into account not only our rights but the rights of others. That is where responsibilities come in. I think that system is what our law calls human rights. When many years ago the Joint Committee on Human Rights, of which I was then a member, proposed a human rights commission, we decided it should be an Equality and Human Rights Commission so that it was clear that equal treatment was essential or the rights would not have general application; that is, they could not be fairly applied.

This makes a powerful culture, and it is one which exemplifies the generally accepted principles of fairness, respect for others and acknowledgment of their dignity. These are what we incorporated into our drafting of the international human rights instruments, where we played a leading part, and what the Labour Government incorporated into domestic law. They are recognised British values. Because they are generally accepted principles, they can form the basis of consent to or disagreement with the rules Parliament makes.

This culture has a particular importance now, which brings me to my second point. We live in a diverse country, with several religions and beliefs and multiple heritages. This is demonstrably an enrichment of our world, but it has also been interpreted to cause alienation, discrimination, prejudice, hostility and violence. We cannot say that any single one of our religions or beliefs or heritages should be the only basis of our rules because that would not be fair to others. So fairness—equality—demands that we find a way to tolerate difference. But we do still need a basis of accepted norms to test our consent, and I think the acceptable one is human rights.

This would be an important ingredient in our counterextremism strategy. It could help to erode the scepticism about democracy which has crept into our public discourse. The respected charity HOPE not hate has found that over a quarter of British citizens—27%—would choose

“having a strong and decisive leader who did not have to bother with parliament or elections”.

Among 18 to 24 year-olds this rises to 41%. From that we must surely conclude that our children need as much education in human rights, democracy and the rule of law as they do in their culture or their religion or belief. The education department is clear that the rule of law should be taught in schools as a “fundamental British value”, but can my noble and learned friend the Attorney-General urge his colleagues to get it packaged with democracy and human rights?

Finally, we should make sure we have the right texts which can engage, in particular, young people. We have no equivalent of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. There are some attractive books—Amnesty International has a picture book on human rights law, We Are All Born Free, which is eminently suitable for primary schools. But I have not seen an authoritative text which links the rule of law, democracy and human rights, suitable not only for schools but for new arrivals in this country and for citizenship tests. Does my noble and learned friend know of one? If not, what about a national competition to produce one?