Writing in the Guardian Newspaper yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said of UK foreign policy that ‘stepping back (from our commitment to human rights) simply for commercial expediency would be walking away from our beliefs.’  Today a Liberal Democrat Minister (Jo Swinson MP) will walk away from her Party’s beliefs and seek to ensure that a central feature of the UK’s domestic human rights protection is repealed – despite the clear will of the House of Lords -  simply for ...

During debates in the House of Commons and House of Lords regarding repeal of the EHRC’s ‘General Duty’, debate centred on the ‘political’ or ‘symbolic’ significance of the duty.  It is of course foolish to treat something with political or symbolic significance as unimportant.  As Lord Low noted during Committee stage in the Lords ‘if its inclusion has symbolic value, is it not the case that its removal will have symbolic value also?’ The approach government has sought to t...

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill will soon return to the House of Commons, led by the Liberal Democrat Minister Jo Swinson MP on behalf of the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable MP. 

It seems very probable that the coalition government will seek to overturn the amendment to s57 of the Bill won by Baroness Jane Campbell last week and supported by prominent Liberal Democrat Peers to prevent repeal of the ‘General Duty’ of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

T...

I’ve spent the past few months working with Parliamentarians to seek to put a stop to government plans to repeal the EHRC’s ‘General Duty’.  I won’t go back over the arguments why, but those arguments did prove persuasive last week when the House of Lords voted 217 – 166 in support of Baroness Jane Campbell’s amendment to keep the General Duty on the statute book.   The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, as amended, now goes back to the House of Commons.

I occupy a peculiar...

This afternoon (4^th March 2013) Peers voted 217-166 in support of Baroness Jane Campbell’s amendment to s57 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, opposing the government’s planned repeal of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s General Duty.   

In addition to Baroness Campbell’s powerful speech a range of impassioned interventions came from all sides of the House including Baroness Thornton, Baroness Lister, Baroness Hollis, Lord Lloyd, Baroness Hussein-Ece and Lord Morr...

This afternoon Members of the House of Lords will debate reforms to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.  Baroness Campbell has tabled an amendment opposing the government’s proposal to repeal the 'General Duty' of the EHRC on grounds that doing so will fundamentally change the purpose, role and scope for independent action by the organisation.  The General Duty says that the EHRC ‘shall discharge its functions with a view to encouraging and supporting a society in which:

people's a...

Last week Minister for Women and Equalities, Maria Miller wrote to the Guardian newspaper to ‘explain’ (read: misinform) why the government wished to focus the EHRC on its ‘unique role’, which it has conveniently discovered will only require a quarter of its original budget to deliver.  It was good to see the Commission fight back, but they desperately need people to rally to their cause and resist reforms which – irrespective of what you feel about the Commission’s past performan...

Maria Miller has written a letter to the Guardian making her case for reform of the Equality and Human Rights Commission following critical reports by Hugh Muir in the wake of some of the existing Commissioners being rejected for re-appointment.    She begins 'Strange goings on would indeed suggest something needs explaining - so perhaps you will let me as secretary of state responsible for women and equalities, explain?' 

But she fails to explain, because if she had she would have corrected...

In 2006, the UK Parliament willed into existence a statutory equality and human rights body to encourage and support the development of a society in which there is respect for the protection and promotion of each individual’s human rights, for the dignity and worth of each individual, in which people can achieve their potential unhindered by discrimination and enjoy equality of opportunity and in which there is mutual respect between groups.

The ‘general duty’ of the Equality and Human...