Britain | Rights and flights

Why Britain’s membership of the ECHR has become a political issue

And why leaving would be a mistake

A photo montage showing some asylum seekers, the british flag, the court caught in a ratchet and Rishi Sunak waving
Illustration: Klawe Rzeczy
|LONDON and STRASBOURG

“Beware! I am going to speak in French!” So said Winston Churchill as he stood in Place Kléber, a square in central Strasbourg, on August 12th 1949. In the speech that followed, Britain’s former prime minister set out his vision of a “united Europe” that would stand against tyranny. Central to it, he said, was the declaration of human rights by the United Nations in Geneva. Two years later, Britain became the first country to ratify the European Convention on Human Rights (echr), which was based on that declaration and largely drafted by British lawyers.

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Rights and flights”

From the April 27th 2024 edition

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