Justice Matters: Love thy neighbour

In Laudato si, Pope Francis says that “Everything is connected. Concern for the environment thus needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings ….” (LS, 91)  Such love should be enshrined in our human rights legislation. Next week we see the start of the season of creation when we hope to look at what it means to love creation.   Before that starts; let’s look at the state of human rights in our country.  Without respect for human rights how can we even begin to respect the rights of all creation?

See:   The UK Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) signed into domestic law the principles of the European Convention of Human Rights, co-drafted by the UK, its first signatory in 1951. Such rights include the right to a fair trial and privacy.   70 years on we are witnessing the government’s attempt to rip the act up in favour of the UK bill of rights or as some have termed it the UK removal of rights bill!   One reason given for the need for change is that HRA threatens the sovereignty of parliament. However this is not accurate. S.19 of the HRA requires the government to indicate whether proposed legislation is compatible with HRA rights. But this is advisory only. The government can say that a proposed law is not compatible with human rights but parliament can still pass the law. The Law Society has concerns, saying that the bill will introduce more barriers to accessing our rights by including a new permission stage.  There are other concerns including it will require courts to give great weight to the views of parliament when balancing rights issues and prevent human rights claims that arise from overseas military operations. They argue that in essence the Bill of Rights  lowers the level of protection given to human rights.

Reflect:    ‘When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not ask your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbours, for fear they repay your courtesy by inviting you in return. No; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; that they cannot pay you back means that you are fortunate, because repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise again.’  Perhaps human rights legislation is a legal response to the call to faith, to prioritise those marginalised in our society.

Action:  Reading the links in the above paragraphs is quite a lot of action!  You can also support Amnesty International's view on this or Liberty's.  I have linked the human rights debate to the season of creation because without human rights we will not arrive at climate justice.  The pope urges us to embrace integral human development.  Quoting  Solicitudo Rei Socialis he says: “a type of development which did not respect and promote human rights – personal and social, economic and political, including the rights of nations and of peoples – would not be really worthy of man”. Integral human development involves the respecting of human rights (including personal freedom).

Tricia Kaminski