Withdrawal from the European Human Rights Convention: the case for and against

Philippe Sands QC and Martin Howe QC, both members of the Government’s 2012 Commission on a Bill of Rights, briefed FPA members on their strongly opposing views on the issue of a possible withdrawal by a future Conservative government from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

In Martin Howe’s view, the central problem is that the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has developed its interpretation of the ECHR in directions contrary to the original intention.

Philippe Sands believed that a country couldn’t be a member of the European Union and withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights at the same time, and membership of the EU was what the Conservative plans were really about. There was also a real danger that withdrawal from the ECHR would undermine the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.