Withdrawal from Human Rights Convention would be dangerous and divisive

Humanists UK has condemned Reform UK’s announcement that it would take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and withdraw from other international agreements if it wins the next general election.

Reform has stated that its aim is to exit the human rights treaty to enable a programme of mass detention and deportation of asylum seekers. Humanists UK has said that such seismic repeal would represent an unprecedented attack on human rights protections in the UK, and has warned that such a move would put the rights of everyone in the UK at risk.

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Reform UK’s policy envisages immediately detaining all undocumented migrants who arrive in the UK in newly built military sites until they are forcibly removed to their countries of origin or to third countries that would be paid a fee. Under a Reform UK government, the Home Secretary would have a duty to remove those who arrive in the UK without documentation. Reform UK claims that this would be made possible by repealing the Human Rights Act, withdrawing from the ECHR and suspending other international agreements. These include the Refugee Convention, the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.

The announcement comes against a backdrop of wider political debate about the UK’s relationship with the ECHR. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch is anticipating wanting to leave the ECHR while awaiting the outcome of a review into the matter, while some Labour voices, including former Home Secretary David Blunkett, have suggested suspending the Convention in the context of asylum policy. Such moves risk setting a dangerous precedent and weakening international human rights protections more broadly.

Human rights repeal would hit ‘every person in the UK’

Withdrawing from the ECHR and other international human rights agreements would not only strip protections from refugees and asylum seekers but would also dismantle safeguards that protect every person in the UK. The Human Rights Act and the ECHR guarantee basic freedoms we all rely on, such as the right to life, freedom of expression, privacy, and a fair trial. These protections have been life-saving: survivors of domestic violence used the Human Rights Act to hold the police and other state bodies accountable when they failed to protect them, disabled veterans to tackle the government’s discrimination against them, and the victims of Hillsborough used the Human Rights Act to secure justice. Without these protections, no one’s rights are secure, and all of us risk being left unprotected against abuses of power.

For humanists specifically, the Human Rights Act has paved the way for legal recognition of humanist marriages in Scotland and Northern Ireland, for teaching about humanism alongside religions in schools in England and Wales, and to address unequal provision of care and support for non-religious patients across the UK. Repeal of the Human Rights Act would present a significant setback for secularism in the UK, as in many cases it would leave non-religious people without a legal mechanism to challenge discriminatory treatment or government bias in favour of religions.

Defending the Human Rights Act

Humanists UK has consistently defended the Human Rights Act and the UK’s international obligations, including the ECHR, as vital safeguards for individual freedom, equality, and dignity. It set up a coalition of over 250 charities, trades unions, and human rights organisations calling for protection of the Act – believed to be the largest-ever UK coalition of groups to campaign on human rights. In 2024, it celebrated the preservation of the Human Rights Act after proposals to weaken it were abandoned. Earlier this year, it welcomed the repeal of laws that had put humanist asylum seekers at heightened risk.

Humanists UK Director of Public Affairs and Policy Richy Thompson commented:

‘This alarming proposal would strip away rights long protected in the UK. Leaving the ECHR would not only imperil the safety of refugees and asylum seekers but also undermine the basic rights of us all. Human rights are universal and indivisible – they are not privileges for the few but protections for everyone. Any plan to leave the ECHR would break the UK’s long tradition of upholding rights and offering refuge. We urge all parties to reject any attempt to turn human rights into a negotiable commodity subject to political convenience.’