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René Cassin’s response to the government’s consultation on the New Plan for Immigration

18 May, 2021 | Asylum and Detention, Latest, Stop the hostile environment

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At the end of last month, René Cassin submitted a response to the Home Office’s plans to overhaul the asylum and immigration systems in the United Kingdom. A summary response is detailed below:

“As ‘speakers by experience’ we believe the outlined plans, and the language used in this consultation, paint a prejudiced picture of a deceptive, threatening and unknowable ‘asylum seeker’ against whom these proposals are necessary to ‘protect’ the existing population of this country. This fear-mongering runs counter to substantive and evidence-based policy linked to the complex needs of refugees and asylum seekers and it stands against basic British values of fairness and compassion. 

We wholeheartedly reject the negative framing of these new proposals around finding a ‘solution’ to the ‘problem’ of ‘disingenuous’ versus ‘genuine’ asylum claims. This serves only to justify proposed changes to immigration policy which do immeasurable harm to migrants and asylum seekers. We also firmly oppose the prejudicial and hostile approach to migrants and asylum seekers embedded in this consultation’s questions, assumptions, proposals and general language. Not only is it deeply careless, but it also poses a threat to the everyday lives of those it depicts and to the tolerance of our society as a whole. “
You can find our full response to the consultation attached here
written-response-NPIDownload

Today, 10th December, is International Human Rights Day – the 76th anniversary of the signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. 

 

 

The Declaration was a reaction to the horrors of the Holocaust. So, for Jews, today has a particuar significance. 

Although rooted in response to atrocity, the Declaration was forward-looking and optimistic. It spoke for the majority of people who knew a better world was possible. The fact that it’s co-author , the French-Jewish lawyer Monsieur Rene Cassin, could draft such a hopeful document so soon after 26 members of his family were murdered by the Nazis is a testament to his humanity and the power of human rights in general. 

Today, as the organisation that works in Cassin’s name, we are determined to ensure his Declaration’s vision of human rights for all is fully realised. Central to that work is a focus on so called ‘socio-economic rights’ – rights to everyday essentials like food, housing and health. This vision was best articulated in Article 25 of the Declaration: 

‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control’.

Bolstering these rights would ensure everybody has access to the foundations on which to build a dignified, prosperous and meaningful life. They have been neglected for too long.

 

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