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The panel set up to review the Human Rights Act appears unlikely to push for its dismemberment. Instead, the review’s restricted scope may pave the way to consensus
Amnesty International had no doubt about the plan. ‘Tearing up the Human Rights Act would be a giant leap backwards. It would be the single biggest reduction in rights in the history of the UK,’ declaimed director Kate Allen within moments of the lord chancellor’s announcement of an independent review of New Labour’s 1998 act.
Law Society president David Greene adopted a more positive tone. Noting that the rights enshrined in the HRA are core to the UK’s identity, he said: ‘These core values will be front and centre for the panel, whose job will be to ensure that they are not rolled back or compromised.’