RIGHTS AS PRIVILEGES, DESERVED INEQUALITY Free expression – for some The one right to be afforded special protection under the Bill of Rights proposals is freedom of expression, seen as quintessentially British and undermined by ‘continental-style privacy rules and the incremental narrowing of the scope for respectful but rumbunctious debate in politically sensitive areas’ according
Impunity Entrenched This week, a beleaguered Boris Johnson administration reacted to calls for his resignation by announcing it will defund Britain’s public broadcaster and further militarise the Franco-British border. With many speculating it is a matter of when, not if, Johnson falls, it is important to recognise that such populist policies, launched to placate the
The protections granted to and proposed for police and immigration officials are mirrored by the extensive use of legislation by regulation, which minimises Parliamentary scrutiny, reducing political accountability for ministers; legislation which reduces the role of the courts and of judicial review in ensuring legal accountability; proposals to criminalise investigative journalists and whistle-blowers, reducing
As revelations of police racism, misogyny and brutality mounted in 2021 – in policing public protests, in encounters with black people, in statistics on stop and search and the use of force – the government responded to calls for change by granting police more powers and protections, and rather than making them more accountable,
The hostile official reception for asylum seekers crossing the Channel is extended to recognised refugees in the Nationality and Borders Bill, which expands the discredited policies of exclusion, criminalisation and deportation to the point of threatening the very institution of asylum. ‘Performative cruelty’ After a five-year-old Afghan refugee boy, Mohammed Munib Majeedi, was killed
As 2022 begins, its difficult to keep up with the legislative and policy changes threatening human rights. To help understand the sheer proliferation of government measures and proposals put forward over the past year, from Monday 17 January 2022, the IRR publish a five-part resource, Impunity Entrenched, authored by IRR Vice-Chair Frances Webber. On
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM | MIGRATION | BORDERS | CITIZENSHIP Asylum and migrant rights 14 December: New immigration rules narrow the categories of people who can claim resettlement under the government’s Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP), for those in danger
IRR News 1 – 15 December 2021 Of all the abhorrent clauses in the government’s Nationality and Borders Bill, which passed its Commons stages last week, it is clause 9 – which would allow ministers to revoke the citizenship of British nationals without notice on ‘public interest’ grounds, which has caused the most outrage. When
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM | MIGRATION | BORDERS | CITIZENSHIP Asylum and migrant rights 3 December: Irish NGOs welcome a government announcement that a 6-month regularisation scheme beginning in January 2022 will provide a pathway to legal status for those awaiting an
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM | MIGRATION | BORDERS | CITIZENSHIP Asylum and migrant rights 16 November: In France, the parliamentary committee on migration publishes a report which cites ‘systemic failures’ in the asylum and migration process, ‘irrational debates’ and dehumanising treatment. (Ouest-France,
