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Category: UK news

  • Peter Tatchell stopped in Qatar while staging LGBT+ rights protest

    Incident outside National Museum in Doha comes less than a month before start of men’s football World Cup

    The human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has been stopped by police in Qatar while staging a protest against the Gulf state’s criminalisation of LGBTQ+ people.

    Tatchell’s protest outside the National Museum of Qatar in the capital, Doha, comes less than a month before the start of the Fifa World Cup, which is expected to attract 1.2 million visitors from around the world.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Rishi Sunak urged to scrap ‘undemocratic’ proposals to axe 2,400 laws

    Charities and trade unions among those calling on new PM to shelve bill that would scrap EU-era legislation protecting workers’ rights and the environment

    Employers, trade unions, lawyers and environmentalists are calling on Rishi Sunak to scrap Jacob Rees-Mogg’s legislation that would sweep away 2,400 laws derived from the EU.

    The retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill is due for its second reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday, which would scrap protections including the ban on animal testing for cosmetics, workers’ rights and environmental measures.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • UK accused of putting Tamil refugees at risk in Indian Ocean

    MoD escorted refugees including children away from Diego Garcia without ensuring boats were seaworthy, lawyers say

    Lawyers have accused the UK of facilitating dangerous onward boat journeys by Tamil refugees who had arrived at the British-claimed territory of Diego Garcia in distress.

    Fishing boats that fled Sri Lanka were escorted to the Indian Ocean island after getting into difficulty but were later permitted to leave on the same vessels without basic safety equipment, putting passengers – including children – at “grave risk”, lawyers have claimed.

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  • Migrant students in Scotland win equal right to free tuition in landmark case

    Court of session rules criteria that meant Ola Jasmin missed out by 58 days breached her human rights

    Students from migrant families in Scotland will have the same right to free university tuition as their peers, after a landmark court judgment which legal experts say highlights the positive impact of human rights legislation.

    The court of session in Edinburgh found that Iraq-born Ola Jasim, who has lived in Scotland for nine years but missed out on the criteria for free tuition fees by 58 days, had her human rights breached.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • ‘It’s a revolution’: Iranian women in UK believe protests will bring freedom

    Women who fled regime are working hard to expose abuses in Iran and say this time real change is possible

    Iranian and Kurdish women living in the UK believe the prospect of freedom for millions of women in their home country has never been greater following protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested in Tehran for not wearing her headscarf correctly.

    Many of those who fled the Iranian regime because of its attacks on human and women’s rights are working hard behind the scenes to support women in their home country to expose the abuses in the hope of encouraging the international community to act to bring about regime change.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • First British woman and her child repatriated to UK from Syrian camp

    Woman, said to have been trafficked, is only adult allowed back since end of Islamic State ground war

    A British woman and her child have been repatriated from a Syrian camp, the first time an adult has been allowed to come back to the UK from detention since the end of the ground war against Islamic State.

    The Foreign Office said that British policy to those held in Syria remained unchanged, and that it considered requests for help on “a case by case basis”, but campaigners said it was a significant first step.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Home Office reclassifies modern slavery as illegal immigration issue

    Exclusive: Charities working with victims say it should not be taken away from the safeguarding minister

    The Home Office has taken the modern slavery brief away from the minister responsible for safeguarding and classed it as an “illegal immigration and asylum” issue, updated online ministerial profiles show.

    The move is seen as a clear sign that the department is doubling down on Suella Braverman’s suggestion that people are “gaming” the modern slavery system and that victims of the crime are no longer being prioritised.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • UK firms using legal muscle to facilitate human rights and climate abuses – report

    Transform Trade charity says British-based companies are among main bringers of cases based on bilateral investment treaties

    UK companies operating overseas are afforded far greater legal protections than the citizens of the countries they invest in, leading to corporations getting away with human rights and climate change abuses, a report has found.

    The Transform Trade charity says the majority of UK bilateral investment treaties (BITs) contain no mention of climate change, the environment or human rights, meaning companies are not held accountable for violations.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Kwasi Kwarteng’s secret meetings with Saudi oil firms revealed

    Exclusive: Meetings while in Saudi Arabia undisclosed due to ‘administrative oversight’, says business department

    The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, held undisclosed meetings with senior executives of Saudi Arabian firms when he was the business secretary, documents acquired by the Guardian show.

    The meetings occurred in January, when Kwarteng visited the kingdom for a two-day trip under his previous ministerial role.

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  • ‘Women, life, liberty’: Iranian civil rights protests spread worldwide

    Demonstrations in string of major cities in solidarity with protests sparked by death of Mahsa Amini in police custody

    Worldwide protests are being held in solidarity with the growing uprising in Iran demanding greater freedom and protesting against the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by Iranian morality police.

    Demonstrations under the slogan “Women, life, liberty” are taking place in many major cities, including Rome, Zurich, Paris, London, Seoul, Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Stockholm and New York.

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  • ‘Painful’ Ofsted report in Herefordshire leads to calls for resignations

    General meeting was held to discuss failing children’s services after an inspection slated its social work as ‘inadequate’ in all areas

    Councillors called for heads to roll at an extraordinary general meeting held to discuss Herefordshire’s failing children’s services after an Ofsted inspection slated its social work as “inadequate” in all areas.

    After a slew of damning high court judgments since 2018 that detailed how Herefordshire social workers had breached children’s human rights, the criticisms in a recent Ofsted report were described by councillors as “painful”, “extremely upsetting”, and “harrowing”.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • UK government faces court challenge in Nigerian rendition case

    Family of Nnamdi Kanu granted judicial review over failure of Britain to intervene after arrest last year

    The family of a British citizen who was allegedly taken to Nigeria in an act of extraordinary rendition has been granted a court hearing to challenge the UK government for not intervening in his case.

    Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a prominent separatist movement proscribed in Nigeria, was arrested in Kenya in June last year before being transported against his will to Nigeria, where he has been held ever since.

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  • Colston four: protesters cannot rely on ‘human rights’ defence, top judge rules

    Acquittal of four who toppled statue unchanged but appeal court decision could affect future trials for ‘significant’ criminal damage

    Protesters accused of “significant” criminal damage cannot rely on human rights protections when on trial, the court of appeal has said.

    The ruling comes after the attorney general made a referral on a point of law following the acquittal of the Colston four. Suella Braverman, who is now home secretary, made the referral after Conservative MPs criticised the acquittal of protesters who toppled the Bristol statue of the slave trader Edward Colston.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Children as young as nine say they are ill from work recycling plastic in Turkey

    Human Rights Watch says failure to enforce laws worsens health impact at centres, amid steep rise in EU and UK waste exports

    Children as young as nine are working in plastic waste recycling centres in Turkey, putting them at risk of serious and lifelong health conditions, according to Human Rights Watch.

    Workers including children, and people living in homes located “dangerously close” to the centres, told researchers they were suffering from respiratory problems, severe headaches and skin ailments.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Liz Truss misled committee over Gulf human rights, MP claims

    Chris Bryant says Truss attempted to ‘pull wool over our eyes’ about raising rights with Gulf leaders

    The Labour MP Chris Bryant has accused Liz Truss of apparently misleading the Commons foreign affairs committee by saying she had personally raised human rights issues with Gulf leaders, but then not producing evidence of this when asked.

    Challenging Truss about an appearance before the committee in June, when she was still foreign secretary, Bryant said in a letter that it was “difficult not to conclude that you have deliberately misled the committee” rather than owning up to a mistake.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Madeleine McCann’s parents lose challenge over Portuguese libel case

    Couple sought redress from European court of human rights after libel case against detective was overturned

    The parents of Madeleine McCann have lost their European court of human rights challenge to the Portuguese supreme court’s decision to throw out their libel case against a former detective who implicated them in their daughter’s disappearance.

    Kate and Gerry McCann sued Gonçalo Amaral, who led the botched police search for Madeleine in 2007, over statements he made in a book, documentary and newspaper interview alleging that they were involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.

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  • Liz Truss halts Dominic Raab’s bill of rights plan

    New PM tells cabinet she will rethink how to deliver agenda, as source describes bill as ‘complete mess’

    Liz Truss has pulled plans to enact a new bill of rights in one of her first acts as prime minister, the Guardian understands, telling the cabinet her government would reassess ways to deliver its agenda.

    The bill was the flagship policy of the outgoing justice secretary, Dominic Raab, who was dismissed by Truss on Tuesday after backing her rival Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership election.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Our shameful betrayal of Shamima Begum | Letters

    The UK government has wholly failed in its duty towards her, say Flora Mackechnie and Nicola Bailey

    It should never have come to alleged espionage for us to notice that what happened to the Bethnal Green trio has been covered up from the very beginning (Shamima Begum’s is a story of trafficking, betrayal and now, it seems, a state cover-up, 2 September). I have been confounded by the equanimity that met the government’s decision to revoke Shamima Begum’s citizenship and the supreme court’s bizarre ruling, which accepted that she had limited access to a fair trial while not seeing fit to allow her return to the UK.

    Begum is the legal responsibility of the UK, and the rejection of this duty encapsulates the political abuse of the law and the unfathomable public acceptance of this. The irony of human rights is that they are popular on a superficial level, but where they are truly required, they are contentious and contradicted. If we make exceptions to rights for those who need them most, we simply do not have any rights.

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  • Boris Johnson broke all the rules, but history may be kind to him yet | Vernon Bogdanor

    From Brexit to Covid, there were some gleams of light – but the PM’s belief he was above the law did for him in the end

    Boris Johnson was chosen by the Conservatives, and the voters in the 2019 election, to break the parliamentary deadlock and get Brexit done. Brexit is now yesterday’s argument. We are out of the European Union.

    But the settlement leaves much for his successor to untangle. The Northern Ireland protocol, part of the withdrawal agreement, leaves Northern Ireland within the EU’s internal market and required to observe EU customs rules. This puts the union in question. If Northern Ireland is linked economically with Ireland, why, some ask, should it not be linked politically as well? Paradoxically, a unionist prime minister has put the union in doubt. Nor has he been able to persuade the Scots that he has their interests close to his heart.

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  • Kenyan tea pickers on Scottish-run farm to pursue health issues in UK court

    Prolonged bending to gather tea for James Finlay Kenya is argued to accelerate ageing of pickers’ backs by up to 20 years

    More than a 1,000 Kenyan tea pickers who say that harsh and exploitative working conditions on a Scottish-run tea farm have caused them crippling health complaints can now pursue their class action in an Edinburgh court.

    Lawyers acting for the tea pickers have won an order from the court of session, Scotland’s highest civil court, telling James Finlay Kenya Ltd (JFK) to abandon attempts to block the suit through the Kenyan courts.

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  • British Sikh activist ‘tortured in India after tip-off from UK intelligence’

    Lawyers for Jagtar Singh Johal say he was given electric shocks after unlawful arrest in Punjab in 2017

    A British Sikh campaigner is facing a possible death sentence after the UK intelligence services passed on information about him to the Indian authorities, according to a high court complaint.

    Lawyers for Jagtar Singh Johal from Dumbarton, Scotland, say he was tortured, including being given electric shocks, after his unlawful arrest in the Punjab in 2017 where he had travelled for his wedding.

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  • Afghan female judge fleeing Taliban appeals after Home Office refuses UK entry

    Lawyers say the woman, who is in hiding in Pakistan with her son, will be killed if sent back to Afghanistan

    A female former senior judge from Afghanistan who is in hiding from the Taliban with her son has filed an appeal to the Home Office after her application to enter the UK was denied.

    Lawyers for the woman – who is named as “Y” – said on Saturday they had submitted an appeal on behalf of their client and her son at the Immigration Tribunal, saying she had been left in a “gravely vulnerable position” by the withdrawal of British and other western troops.

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  • Liz Truss accused of delaying human rights report over criticism of Rwanda

    Publication of Foreign Office annual report on global rights was due before parliamentary summer recess

    Liz Truss has been accused of holding up publication of the Foreign Office’s annual human rights report because it is likely to contain criticisms of Rwanda’s human rights record.

    This year’s version of the annual assessment of how the UK views other countries’ rights records was due before the parliamentary summer recess, and is now the most delayed since the review was launched by the then foreign secretary Robin Cook 21 years ago.

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  • Sarah Everard vigil protester sues Met police after conviction

    Dania Al-Obeid brings human rights claim after being found guilty of breaching Covid restrictions without court hearing

    A woman who was arrested and charged after attending the vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham last year has launched civil proceedings against the Metropolitan police.

    Dania Al-Obeid was convicted for breaching coronavirus restrictions when attending the vigil in 2021 under a Single Justice Procedure, which allows a magistrate to decide on a case without the need for a court hearing.

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  • Foreign Office official raised ‘stark’ criticisms of Rwanda plan, court hears

    Guardian, BBC and Times seek release of documents about policy of sending asylum seekers abroad

    A Foreign Office official raised concerns about plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, citing state surveillance, arbitrary detention, torture and killings by the country’s government, the high court has heard.

    The court has been asked to consider an application by the foreign secretary to keep parts of certain government documents secret for fear the contents could damage international relations and threaten national security.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Why does the government want to reform judicial review?

    Tory ministers have long been unhappy with wide-ranging court powers to challenge the legality of their actions

    The justice secretary, Dominic Raab, is planning to make it harder to succeed in judicial reviews against the government, a leaked document suggests. But what is judicial review and why is the government determined to reform it?

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  • Archie Battersbee family says ‘no parent must go through this again’

    Relatives say they want changes to how life-support cases are dealt with after 12-year-old died following withdrawal of care

    Relatives of Archie Battersbee, who died after his life support treatment was withdrawn on Saturday, have called for change in the way such cases are handled, saying they “want something good to come out of this tragedy”.

    The 12-year-old’s parents fought a bitter legal battle to try to stop doctors, who believed Archie to be brain stem dead, from removing treatment. After that failed, they began a fresh legal challenge – also unsuccessful – for him to be moved to a hospice to die.

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    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Archie Battersbee dies after parents lose legal battle over life support

    Mother says 12-year-old ‘fought until the end’ following withdrawal of treatment at Royal London hospital

    Archie Battersbee, the 12-year-old boy whose parents fought a long-running legal battle to prevent his life support treatment from being removed, has died, his mother has said.

    Speaking outside the Royal London hospital, Hollie Dance said he had “fought right until the very end”.

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  • Suella Braverman’s attack on ‘woke’ HR is a spectacular own goal | Robin Moira White

    The attorney general wants to scrap Whitehall diversity training. It could mean a host of new lawsuits that the government would lose

    • Robin Moira White is a discrimination lawyer

    Normal conventions don’t apply in this government operating under Boris Johnson’s rules. Suella Braverman is a case in point: the attorney general for England and Wales has become known for her bizarre rants and odd stances. Her latest move is endorsing Liz Truss’s campaign pledge to remove diversity advisers from government departments. Braverman’s motivation is undoubtedly pandering to the Tory party membership and fanning the flames of a culture war. As a discrimination barrister, I know how reckless and dangerous scrapping diversity advisers would be.

    When I bring cases for claimants, the first question I ask managers is: what equality training have you had? When the answer is “none”, managers are immediately put on the back foot in a tribunal. They may never recover. A lack of diversity training can have dire legal consequences. An employer accused of a random and unpredictable act of discrimination can argue that they took the “reasonable steps” to prevent such action. But unless the employer has clear anti-discrimination policies in place and has provided relevant training, this defence is unlikely to succeed.

    Robin Moira White is a discrimination barrister at Old Square Chambers

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  • Archie Battersbee: ruling on hospice move expected on Friday

    Lawyers had requested that 12-year-old be moved from Royal London hospital to spend his last moments in private

    A ruling on whether 12-year-old Archie Battersbee can be moved from hospital to a hospice to die is expected at the high court on Friday morning.

    Lawyers for the boy’s family took part in an hours-long legal hearing on Thursday, with the court in London sitting until late in the evening.

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