If you’re a Calder Valley citizen and want to keep the Human Rights Act (HRA), please tell our MP Craig Whittaker to join with pro- Human Rights Tory MPs and argue and vote against the government’s attempt to repeal the HRA.

Here is a template for an letter/email to send him – obviously change it as you see fit.

You can copy and paste it into this email form and then send it to our MP.

STARTS

Dear Craig Whittaker MP,

Like many people, I was shocked to learn of the Conservative Government’s plans to scrap the Human Rights Act (HRA). I understand the proposed repeal of the HRA is going to be in the Queen’s Speech; I would like you to argue and vote against this proposal in the House of Commons.

The European Convention on Human Rights, on which the HRA is based, was inspired by the Conservative politician, Sir Winston Churchill, and drafted in 1950 by the newly formed Council of Europe under the guidance of another Conservative, David Maxwell-Fyfe (later Lord Chancellor Kilmuir) with the threats of totalitarianism and fascism still fresh in European minds. There are now 47 European countries which are signatories including Turkey and Russia. These human rights are the cornerstone of a great civilisation, a beacon of security, liberty and prosperity in the world. It makes no sense for a Conservative government to undo one of their own greatest achievements.

Regrettably, even in Britain there has been a number of cases where the HRA has not been enforced: Tony Blair’s deportation of Islamic militants to be tortured by the CIA in Guantanamo Bay, David Cameron’s forced labour through Workfare or NSA and GCHQ invasion of privacy; if we have been slow to hold those in power to account, then it is because the HRA does not go far enough. Given that these abuses have been possible even with the Act in place, many fear the proposed replacement, a ‘British Bill of Rights’ will not be enough to ensure current protections remain in place, and could even lead to further erosion of our fundamental rights.

There are still many countries where the rights and freedoms we take for granted are missing, where the death penalty, slavery or torture are common, where people do not have freedom of association, of expression, of marriage or of belief. As a nation, I believe we should be proud of our record on human rights and that we should continue to stand firm as an example and encourage other countries to move to enshrine these fundamental rights and freedoms in law. It is therefore imperative that the HRA should not scrapped simply because our Government wishes to break the formal link between the British courts and the European Court of Human Rights.

I sincerely hope you agree and will use your position to defend the HRA in Parliament.

Yours sincerely,

ENDS

The header photo is by Catching.Light and is published on Upper Calder Valley Plain Speaker under the Creative Commons Attribution 2 Generic Licence.