Just who does the European Court of Human Rights protect?

The Northampton South Member of Parliament used the opportunity of a debate of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg to highlight the dangers inherent in what he described as the risk that human rights become a byword for foolish decisions by courts and administrators.

Mr Binley argued: “most people in my town of Northampton in the midlands of England are less concerned about the backlog than about the Court’s increasingly bizarre judgments. They wonder whom the Court protects”.  He continued: “foreign criminals have evaded deportation at the end of their sentences because it might interfere with their right to family life, but the public need protection from dangerous criminals, and justice needs to be done. They want to know where the balance is”.

He told the Parliamentary Assembly that: “in a survey last year, two thirds of people in Britain agreed that ultimate authority on human rights should rest with the Supreme Court in London, with only one in five stating that is should rest in Strasbourg”. He concluded: “perhaps the Court should stop trying to usurp democracy, and limit its ambitions; otherwise its very legitimacy will be brought into question”.

Commenting after the debate, Mr Binley said: “this remains a very important issue for people, not only in Northampton, but across the United Kingdom and Europe more widely. The very reputation of the European Court of Human Rights is at stake, and, given that these rights are the very bedrock of a civilised society, none of us should revel in that prospect: we need urgently to enable the Court to restore its reputation and standing with the public – and I fear that we are still going in the wrong direction”.