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Our Rights Remain Under Attack As Farage Campaign Is Underwritten By Gift From Musk

It was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a ground breaking international agreement, which was the first to enshrine the fundamental rights that belong to all of us, simply for being human.

It inspired both the European Convention on Human Rights and, in turn, the UK's own Human Rights Act

Click each image to download the documents

However, one would be forgiven for asking what does this have to do with workplace Health & Safety, Union Safety Reps and Trade Union members, or indeed public safety?

Well, workers rights to a safe and working environment underpins all of the above human rights agreements and legislation, along with environmental protection as embodied in the principle of ‘the right to life’.

With the announcement this week that billionaire Elon Musk is about to gift Nigel Farage 100 million US dollars towards his campaign fund to fight the next general election and topple the now very unpopular
Keir Starmer, the UK’s Human Rights Act in its existing form based as it is on the European Convention on Human Rights and that of the UK’s signatory to the Declaration of  Human Rights,
remains threatened as one of the greatest targets of any Farage Government.

To the extent that would put the UK public in serious danger of the removal of so many human rights as a result and how it would affect UK laws, can be seen by the witness input of the British Institute Of Human Rights (BIHR), which was one of the key participants in the Independent Commission on UK Public Health Emergency Powers into the UK governments’ reactions to Covid-19.

The Commission was set up with the goal of producing findings and recommendations that will help inform planning for future health emergencies.

In May 2024, a report entitled Human Rights & Covid Legislation: The Independent Commission on UK Public Health Emergency Powers was published. It was almost ignored by the media, as you would expect from the right-wing media of this country which is mainly controlled by vested interests of  billionaires not residing in the UK.

The BIHR CEO, Sanchita Hosali, gave evidence to the Commission, drawing on the organisations  experience of working with individuals, community groups, public body workers and policy-makers throughout the pandemic.

Here is the essence of their subsequent press release:

Sanchita [Hosali] discussed concerns that human rights and the existing duties on public officials were not properly considered at every stage of decision-making, with governments prioritising protecting the right to life without properly considering other rights that were impacted.

The Commission subsequently recommended that “Ministers should have a statutory duty to have regard to any relevant advice produced by National Human Rights Institutions in their jurisdiction when making or continuing a declaration of an urgent health situation and when laying or continuing public health regulations.”

Sanchita also raised the need for better government consultation and engagement with both individuals and public body staff. She highlighted the example of care-led organisations and care homes raising problems with hospital discharge policies early on but not being listened to. Effective evidence gathering needs to be proactive; issuing a consultation is not enough.

The Commission then recommended that planning for future public health emergencies should “identify points where certain groups should be consulted in a proactive, participatory manner” and “the task of ensuring that certain groups are consulted as part of the legislative drafting process should be assigned to a particular member of the team.

She also spotlighted examples of positive practice during the pandemic, with the Scottish Government explaining in its two-monthly reports whether local authorities had used the Coronavirus Act to reduce levels of care and support packages. This level of transparency “opened an avenue for organisations to give evidence and influence the review processes”. However, this same level of transparency was not seen in other areas of the UK.

The Commission said that, in light of this discussion, it “consider[s] that emergency-responsive primary legislation should include a regular (i.e. two-monthly) reporting requirement that requires reports with evaluative, not purely narrative, criteria to be prepared for the legislature.”

Finally, Sanchita, along with the former Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, asked the Commission to consider including human rights expertise on the body providing the UK Government with advice during emergencies.

The Commission agreed, saying ,“when responding to a public health emergency, governments should convene or recognise a group whose function is to provide independent expert advice on human rights and equality issues arising from potential or existing public health interventions."

The future of human rights in the UK rests entirely upon voters of this country, a large proportion of whom have no real awareness of the importance of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and subsequent human rights legislation which underpins the values and way of life in the UK.

Many believe such ignorance amongst voters and media distortions of, and campaigns against, the UK’s Human Rights Act and that of the European Convention of Human Rights, is how regime’s such as that of Sadat in Syria, Kim Jon Ung in North Korea, and of course Hitler’s Nazi Germany; come to exist.

Source: BIHR / United Nations / Politico

 

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