René Cassin and Liberty are marking Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January, by stressing the link between the Holocaust and the development of safeguards to protect human rights.
The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on 10 December 1948. It was followed five years later by the Council of Europe’s European Convention on Human Rights, which was incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998.
The government plans to ‘scrap’ the Human Rights Act and curtail the role of the European Court of Human Rights – the court that ensures that countries comply with the Convention. A Ministry of Justice consultation on repeal of the Human Rights Act is expected in early 2016.
Mia Hasenson-Gross, director of René Cassin, said:
As the Jewish voice for human rights, René Cassin is particularly concerned about plans to scrap the Human Rights Act. Human rights laws were developed to ensure the horrors of the Holocaust can never happen again. In this uncertain and insecure world, we should be strengthening these laws, not scrapping them.
René Cassin / Liberty Holocaust Memorial Day statement
http://renecassin.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Holocaust-Memorial-Day-27jan16.pdf
You can download this statement here
