European Convention on Human Rights: 75th Anniversary

Lord Cashman Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cashman (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, for so powerfully moving this debate with such a comprehensive and passionate opening statement. It gives us the opportunity to note the tremendous positive impact of the convention, not only here in the United Kingdom but elsewhere. I also record my thanks to Professor Paul Johnson of the University of Leeds for his advice and support.

The convention is a vital aspect of life in the United Kingdom. It does not merely enunciate a set of important principles that most of us agree with, such as the ability to speak freely, to hold our own beliefs and to be free from interference in our private lives, as others have said. Rather, it creates a tangible and effective mechanism to allow us all to seek redress if we feel that our human rights and fundamental freedoms have been violated.

The sad fact is that it is this very enforceability of the convention, particularly by the European Court of Human Rights, that has long caused hostility towards it—hostility from those who wrongly claim that the convention and the Strasbourg court are interfering with or even damaging life in the United Kingdom. Such arguments are not new, but I do not agree with them. The very strength of the convention, which is a living instrument, is that it allows individuals who are subject to unjustified interference in their rights and freedoms to hold those in power to account. I support the Strasbourg court and its work to interpret the convention in ways that maximise the rights and freedoms of individuals and that require Governments to address any violation of those rights and freedoms.

I support the rights and freedoms of all individuals, but particularly close to my heart is the issue of protecting the rights and freedoms of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. My life has been changed for the better because of this convention and the judgments from the court. The importance of the convention to LGBT people—indeed, to any minority—cannot be overstated. It has positively transformed lives, particularly those often shunned by the mainstream.

I turn to the judgments of the court. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Etherton, who sadly cannot be in his place today, has asked me to specifically state that it was precisely because of the judgment ending the ban on gays serving in the military in the United Kingdom that we were able to end centuries of prejudice within the armed services that blighted so many lives. The Etherton review and its recommendations, accepted by the previous Government and this Government, have begun to repair some of the damage. I contend that it is because of brave individuals—in this case supported by Stonewall—who had the courage to go through arduous legal procedures that we have been able to right these wrongs, but we can do more.

Currently, because the UK has not signed up to Protocol 12, people in the United Kingdom have less protection from discrimination under the convention than in many other European nations. This is an unacceptable situation. It would be highly appropriate if, on this important anniversary, the Government would commit to extending the protection of Protocol 12 to all individuals in the United Kingdom.

In conclusion, in these dark times, as we witness unimaginable human rights atrocities on a grand scale in parts of our world, we need more assurances and protections on human rights, not fewer. Complacency is the enemy of much and many, never more so in the field of human rights and civil liberties. Long may the European Convention on Human Rights speak to us, and especially to those, both here in the United Kingdom and across the world, who would diminish the human rights of others.