Mary-Ann Stephenson has warned that withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights would be a mistake, while urging honesty in public debate about migration and cautioning against the demonisation of migrants.
The chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said the convention forms part of a framework that provides rights most would consider fundamental, but the tone of public conversation around it is often dangerous. She pointed to misleading coverage of human rights rulings, including the so-called 'chicken nuggets' case, which was widely reported as preventing a deportation because of a child's dislike of foreign food despite the decision not being based on that detail and having already been overturned.
Political debate over the UK's membership of the ECHR has intensified, with the Conservatives and Reform UK pledging to quit the treaty. The Labour government is reviewing human rights law, including changes to articles 3 and 8, to make it easier to win deportation cases.
Stephenson described the convention as 'really important' because it is incorporated into the UK's Human Rights Act, and said leaving would weaken the rights everyone depends on. She cited supreme court judgments involving the investigation into the rapist John Worboys and the threatened separation of an elderly couple as examples of protections most people would support.
Earlier this month, the head of the body overseeing the convention said member states had taken an 'important first step forward together' in agreeing to look at changes to tackle migration within its legal framework. Conservative home affairs spokesman Chris Philp condemned Stephenson's remarks as a 'disgrace', claiming the left was trying to paint those opposed to mass immigration and illegal immigration as racist.
