London wants to be able to ignore certain ECHR injunctions

Europe 1 with AFP 11:22 a.m., June 16, 2022

British Justice Minister Dominic Raab said on Thursday that the European Court of Human Rights should not have blocked the deportation of migrants to Rwanda, warning that he wanted to legislate to be able to ignore certain injunctions from this body.

Examine the legality of the device 

Tuesday evening, a plane specially chartered for hundreds of thousands of euros was ready to take off from an English military base, when the ECHR, the jurisdiction of the Council of Europe ensuring compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights , expressed his opposition.

The Court based in Strasbourg considered that the British justice should examine in detail the legality of the device, which is planned for July, before deporting migrants.

Dominic Raab stressed that the UK judiciary - High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court - had considered urgent appeals by human rights defenders and refugee supporters and had not opposed the deportations .

“I think that when three courts, and I have great respect for the judicial system of this country, have dismissed the subject, it is not right for Strasbourg to intervene as it has done,” the minister said on Sky News.

No power to make binding injunctions

"The Strasbourg Court itself has said for many years that it has no power to make binding injunctions. And then later they said, 'In fact, we cannot make such judgments binding.

It is not based on the (European) Convention on Human Rights,” the minister said.

The recent ECHR decision reinforces the need for the UK to reform human rights law, he says, with a new 'Bill of Rights' that would ensure the government can ignore this type of ECHR decisions.

"Our Bill of Rights will correct that," assured the minister.

After the derailment of its project, the British government expressed its determination to continue with its strategy, despite criticism.