There is a growing and unfortunate clamour for a roll-back on human rights commitments. These included some unfortunate comments from the Prime Minister over the weekend to the effect that he thought that human rights legislation had gone too far.

Personally I don’t think it has gone nearly far enough. One of the major goals the world needs us all to be working towards is a global culture where fairness reigns and people are all seen as having inalienable rights by virtue of their humanity alone.

I don’t happen to like e-petitions as a way of influencing governement but they are here and probably here to stay.

There is a new petition I’ve signed regarding Britain’s relationship to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Here’s the text:

We, the undersigned, believe that the growing clamour to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights is incredibly dangerous, and call for HM Government to resist all calls to do so.The ECHR was drafted in 1950 by members of the Council of Europe (the UK prominent among them), shortly after the worst example of genocide in human history, to protect the fundamental freedoms of people across Europe. Unlike the EU, nearly all countries in Europe are signatories to the ECHR and fall under the jurisdiction of the court it established. To withdraw would set the UK on a very lonely course. Much of the debate surrounding the ECHR focuses on the perceived benefits it brings to convicted prisoners as opposed to their victims. But the ECHR was set up to hold nation states to account for rights violations, not individuals (which is the job of domestic courts). Human rights should be fundamental, inviolable and universal; withdrawal won’t just harm prisoners, but all of us.

Though I feel vaguely disgusted that it is necessary to sign petitions about this, I’ve a horrible feeling that it is becoming necessary.

It can be signed here.