UK trying to override ECHR after Rwanda spat, ECHR responds

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After a Strasbourg court halted aircraft carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda, the UK government adopted legislation on Wednesday allowing it to defy ECHR judgments.

In April, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government declared plans to deport some asylum seekers in the United Kingdom to Rwanda, a plan that drew criticism from both within and outside Johnson's Conservative Party, as well as from many charities.

The UK has sacked criticism that the policy is inhumane, claiming that it is worse to encourage a system in which many asylum seekers are exploited by people smugglers.

Read more: UK government defends policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab disputed that the government intended to join Russia in withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights, which is monitored by the Strasbourg court.

However, Raab, who is also the Justice Secretary, stated that the new "Bill of Rights" will "return a healthy dose of common sense" to the British legal system.

The first removal flight was approved by British courts earlier this month, but the ECHR intervened at the last minute with an interim decision to prevent it from departing.

A court examination of the plan's legality is scheduled for next month in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Raab told lawmakers that the Bill of Rights will "strengthen our proud tradition of freedom" dating back to the 1215 Magna Carta.

Magna Carta is regarded as the cornerstone of freedom, contemporary democracy, justice, and the rule of law, and it has served as the foundation for legal systems all over the globe – as well as human rights accords.

"We will strengthen the separation of powers in this country, affirming the supremacy of the Supreme Court, being explicit that the UK courts are under no obligation to follow the Strasbourg case law and indeed are free to diverge from it," Raab stated.

"I'm proud of our world-beating judiciary, and what else is the point of a Supreme Court if it bows in subordination to a European one?"

Johnson's Spokesperson told reporters that they would "do nothing that jeopardizes the Good Friday Agreement," a 1998 agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland after decades of violence over British rule.

"What we are doing is ensuring that UK courts have primacy. The Supreme Court is a superior court and obviously it's parliament that sets UK law.”

Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, hinted over the weekend that the ECHR ruling was politically motivated, reinforcing the government's narrative about European institutions superseding UK sovereignty.

The UK left the European Union last year following a Brexit referendum in 2016, but the Strasbourg court is not a member of the group.

Amnesty International UK's chief executive, Sacha Deshmukh, called the measure "a giant leap backwards for the rights of ordinary people."

"This is not about tinkering with rights, it's about removing them," he stated.

The UK has vowed to take control of its migration crisis and battling record numbers of people attempting to cross from northern France.

The new Bill of Rights would replace Britain's 1998 Human Rights Act, which was passed by Tony Blair's Labour administration as part of the Northern Ireland peace process.

Johnson's Conservative administration has already restricted demonstrators' rights, which has been condemned by opposition parties and campaigners.

Read more: A Crackdown on Democracy: UK's New Bill Suppresses Free Speech

UK will violate Human Rights Convention if refuses to comply with ECHR decisions

The UK authorities will violate the European Convention on Human Rights if they do not comply with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Court's press service told RIA Novosti.

The Court held that Article 34 of the Convention (by which Contracting States undertake to refrain from any act or omission which might interfere with the effective exercise of the right of an individual applicant to lodge a complaint) would be violated if the authorities of the state did not take all the steps that could be taken to comply provisional measures, the ECHR said, commenting on the bill being prepared in London.