Creating a fairer Britain
This article, by Commissioner Geraldine Van Bueren originally appeared in the Guardian's Comment is Free section on 21 February 2011.
Critics of the European court are on the wrong side of history – the UK needs an international standard on human rights
Throughout history, those who hold the reins of power have frequently derided charters of rights and the courts that enforce them. The Magna Carta was not welcomed by King John: as well as seeking to resist the great charter, he even secretly asked Pope Innocent III to annul it.
More than 400 years later, the Magna Carta, celebrated by modern British governments of all political persuasions, was considered so unacceptable by King Charles I that chief justice Edward Coke's analysis of it was suppressed for almost a decade after Coke's death. Now, despite Britain's founding role in the European convention on human rights, there appears to be a campaign to scapegoat human rights and to repudiate our proud history.