A powerful United Nations human rights body issued a scathing assessment Thursday of civil rights protections in Britain, accusing the Conservative government of backsliding and urging the country to drop controversial legislation to allow asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda.
The criticism from the UN Human Rights Commission came as it presented its findings from two days of meetings in Geneva this month with a delegation of 24 British officials to review the country’s compliance with an international treaty to protect political and civil rights.
“We are witnessing a really regressive trend and trajectory” in Britain, committee member Hélène Tigroudja told a news conference in Geneva. He said the trend was occurring “in many, many areas in terms of civil and political rights, and I hope that our message will be heard from the UK”.
The 18-member UN panel considered a wide range of concerns over the two days. Britain is one of more than 170 countries that have ratified the treaty — the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — and member states go through periods of review. The committee’s conclusions are generally taken seriously, but it does not have the power to impose sanctions.
The committee called on Britain to “quickly repeal” provisions of a law passed last year to try to curb illegal immigration and a hotly contested bill in Parliament that would send asylum seekers to the East African country of Rwanda.
Noting that Britain’s Supreme Court had ruled that the bill violated international law, the committee said it deprived asylum seekers of their most basic rights.
“These texts exemplify the regressive trend experienced in the United Kingdom,” said Ms. Tigroudja, a French professor of international law, in a written comment, “and not only in the exercise of civil and political rights, but also in respect of rule. of law, the judicial system and the basic principles of humanity enshrined in the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees’.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made curbing illegal immigration a flagship policy of his government as he prepares for an election expected this year. And a British government spokesman said in an emailed statement on Thursday that the country was “committed to the Rwanda Security Bill, which will help stop illegal immigration to the UK, dismantle people-trafficking gangs and save lives”.
British officials have argued that the best way to stop illegal arrivals of migrants and asylum seekers is to ensure they cannot remain in the country and that asylum seekers can continue to challenge their deportation.
The UN panel also questioned Britain’s anti-terror laws and warned that proposed changes to laws governing the control of information by intelligence agencies could allow the government to collect personal data too widely.
The commission said an anti-protest law passed last year, the Public Order Act 2023, imposed “severe and unreasonable restrictions” on the right to peaceful assembly and criminalized some forms of peaceful protest by Britons. He said he was deeply concerned about the excessive use of the law to restrict political space and that law enforcement agencies should stop using facial recognition and mass surveillance technologies at protests.
The committee also expressed concern about a law passed last year to deal with the legacy of the violent conflict in Northern Ireland that allows conditional immunity from prosecution for people who have committed serious crimes and human rights abuses, as well as a law passed before of three years which sets a time limit on legal action against military personnel originating from overseas operations.
The laws raise long-standing questions about the lack of investigations into allegations of torture or prosecutions for war crimes and other abuses, Ms Tigruja noted. “We put it up for discussion because it’s really a serious concern,” he said.
The British government spokesman said in the statement on Thursday that “the Heritage Act seeks to put in place effective retrieval of information for victims and families, while complying with our international obligations”.
British officials said overseas military operations legislation left open the possibility of prosecution in all cases, subject to prosecutorial discretion.
“We cannot say that we are satisfied with this general response,” Ms Tigroudja said.
Ms Tigroudja said the committee was particularly concerned about laws that limited the ability to investigate or prosecute serious human rights abuses committed during the conflict in Northern Ireland or by British military personnel on operations overseas. The committee said Britain should repeal or amend both laws.
Stephen Castle contributed reporting from London.
