July 26, 2019

The hard-right British government determined to abandon Human Rights

topic:	Humans
located:	United Kingdom, Syria
editor:	Gurmeet Singh

Chances are you've never heard of Priti Patel. It’s not surprising if you haven’t. After all, how many minor British politicians can you be expected to know? But it’s important you do learn her name, since she will now be in charge of the future of many millions of people across the U.K. as the new Home Secretary. Her job will be to design the systems and processes whereby people from outside the U.K., or with a migrant background will be judged. It will determine their residency or their detention statuses.

And before you get your hopes up, believing that as someone with an obvious migrant background herself Patel will be sympathetic to the plight of migrants, think again. Not only is Patel an opportunist, she is also a firm believer in hard-right policies against migration, and she’s also incompetent to boot.

Don’t believe me? Just watch her try to form a coherent position on the death penalty. She can’t do it. Why? Because to her, appearances are more important than reality. You don’t need to have a serious position on anything, just one that looks serious. The government appearing tough and acting tough are more important than helping people in need.

But this is the new reality of Britain. Many of us have known for years just how severely the British government and population have been against human rights. But now, under the aegis of new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the country has even stopped pretending to care. In fact, there are a number of topics the government has ceased pretending to care about, among which are human rights, how the country is perceived around the world, Brexit, its outcome and impact, equality and equity, and public discourse.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that the U.K. has abandoned seriousness in favour of bluster. It has swapped principle for chauvinism. And it has swapped appearance for reality. In reality, Britain has a heavily centralised economy based on media, financial and legal services that imports more than it exports, and it is deeply locked into the EU. In the new world of appearances, the U.K. can give everyone jobs, because it is Great Britain. In reality, the U.K. has responsibilities to support areas of the world it has directly impacted such as Iraq, Israel, India and large swathes of the African continent.

In Brexit-land, these countries can go to hell, because the U.K. has no responsibilities to anyone but itself. In reality, the country that fought against the Nazis and helped establish human rights as principles should uphold them. In appearance land, anyone who is not white, British, and sufficiently in support of the U.K. is subject to suspicion, or worse.

The new cabinet assembled by Boris Johnson shows just how low the U.K. has sunk. Not only will Patel be in charge of the Home Office (which will now surely become more draconian against migrants), Dominic Raab has been appointed Foreign Secretary. As rightsinfo.org says: “Raab has been an outspoken critic of the Human Rights Act (HRA), the piece of legislation which embeds international human rights protections as part of our laws. In his previous role as Justice Minister, he masterminded plans to replace the Act, claiming that he was worried about the sovereignty of British Parliament and judges, as well as how rights could be expanded. He also added that he believed the original Human Rights Act was 'rushed' and 'flawed'”.

Then there’s Sajid Javed, who as Home Secretary “made headline news in February when he decided to strip east London 19-year-old Shamima Begum of her British citizenship following her decision to join terrorist group ISIS in Syria as a jihadi bride.”

Some will argue that it is a ‘good thing’ to have multiple people of colour in the cabinet, and that this fact alone will help skew policies toward a fairer treatment of migrants, and that human rights will be upheld. Well, if there ever was a need to differentiate between diversity and decolonisation, it’s now. A person of colour upholding white supremacy is not much progress, is it?

And there’s Johnson himself who is well-known to hold archaic, racist views and is willing to do anything to please his electoral base, including ditching human rights.

That’s why it is important to continue to challenge British politics by supporting organisations rooted in reality. Human Rights Watch, Hope Not Hate, and the British Labour Party are all good places to start.

Image: Priti Patel, facebook

Call to Action

People deserve a final say on Brexit – for them and for Europe

Support now