Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) says the Government must not use fundamental rights as a ‘bargaining chip’ in its Brexit negotiations.
The JCHR’s report affirms that the process of the UK’s withdrawing from the European Union (EU) will have a significant impact on the laws that protects human rights in the UK. Many fundamental rights are underpinned by EU law (read about them here) and the JCHR says that it is not clear whether the Government intends to remove rights which UK citizens currently have under EU law.
It went on to say that the Government has been ‘unacceptably reluctant’ to talk about the issue of human rights after Brexit. The Minister of State for Human Rights was ‘unwilling or unable’ to tell the JCHR what the Government sees as the most significant human rights issue that would arise when the UK leaves the EU. The JCHR advises that the Government set out a detailed list of fundamental rights which are currently protected because of the UK’s membership of the EU and what approach the Government intends to take to those rights.