Theresa May is attacking the UK’ s civil liberties
Whilst most media outlets attack Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott, they suppress the story that Theresa May wants to take away our rights as human beings and citizens of the UK and censor the internet.
By Matthew Clifton
Since the attacks in the UK in the last month or so, Theresa May announced another policy to add to the Conservative manifesto. She said that she would‘ rip up’ the Human Rights Act if it stood in the way of countering terrorism. She would rip up the very piece of legislation that people fought for during WWII, she would tear down barriers to fight terrorism with unthinkable means. The very rights that every citizen in this country have, would no longer exist.
There are several issues when it comes to sharing vital information with our allies, the EU would not be able to share intelligence with us due to scrapping the act. Plus, she misses the point entirely about extremism but of course she has no care for tackling the issue.
The European Court of Human Rights( ECHR)
Theresa May and other Conservatives have been in favour in recent times to scrap the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights, which would allow any decision by the UK courts remain unchecked by the ECHR. Bear in
mind it was British lawyers that drew up the legislation for the ECHR in the first place after WWII. The ECHR upholds rights of individuals within 47 European countries.
Key aspects of the European Convention on Human Rights are freedom of the press, without it could mean that any form of press that speaks out negatively against the government could face being shut down. Child protection, the ECHR have overruled British courts in the past, when they have ruled some violent cases as‘ reasonable’. Homophobia, a ruling from the ECHR after N. Ireland tried to criminalise homosexuality in 1981 set in motion the Council of Europe’ s legal precedent that no EU state could criminalise homosexuality, this is an important protection for the LGBTQI community.
They ruled that torture was a degrading and inhumane treatment, with the practice being officially ended within the army. Deportation, if we changed the laws it could mean that millions of innocent civilians could be deported by the government at a whim, some cases have stood out but many of the individuals in question have largely been deported in the end. But not without assurances by specific nations such as Jordan and the US
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Issue # 8 17th June 2017
over potential human rights violations.
Internet censorship
The other concern comes from the Conservative manifesto itself, where there are plans to essentially censor the internet. They seem harmless to begin with and it is under the guise of defeating terrorism. The problems emerge once you consider the technical details of how they would be able to implement the policy itself. The manifesto says the following:
“ So we will establish a regulatory framework in law to underpin our digital charter and to ensure that digital companies, social media platforms and content providers abide by these principles. We will introduce a sanctions regime to ensure compliance, giving regulators the ability to fine or prosecute those companies that fail in their legal duties, and to order the removal of content where it clearly breaches UK law. We will also create a power in law for government to introduce an industry-wide levy from social media companies and communication service providers to support awareness and preventative activity to counter internet harms, just as is already the case with the gambling industry.”
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