The Telegraph, November 4, Martin Howe
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been visiting Austria this week, as Vienna plans to adopt its own Rwanda-style scheme for sending illegal migrants to another country for their asylum claims to be dealt with.
This comes on top of a recent announcement by Gérald Darmanin, the French interior minister, who said France would deport foreigners deemed a threat without waiting for the Strasbourg human rights court to rule on their cases, despite facing fines. Likewise, Giorgia Meloni of Italy has expressed her support for the Rwanda policy, although she was blocked by her government from putting that into an official communiqué.
These developments have led some to conclude that we should try to “reform” the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) instead of leaving it. The problems caused by the Strasbourg court’s activism are causing frustration and even anger among some powerful European countries. Why not try fixing it.
But let’s look at the practicalities of what that would require. In order to amend the text of the ECHR, the agreement of all 46 of its member states would be needed. David Cameron tried this in 2012 when the UK held the Presidency of the Council of Europe. Because of the need for unanimity, he achieved little and his changes took until 2021 to come into force.
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