Het EVRM is er niet alleen voor immigranten. Voor sommige onderdanen de enige weg om recht te halen

“UK must not think only of itself”: Massacre families urge UK not to leave ECHR – Alice Donald

Photo credit: Guardian.co.uk

The Conservative Party’s proposals to introduce a British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities that would weaken the UK’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – and the legal chaos that would ensue if it was ever enacted – have been hotly debated. The proposal makes clear that if the Council of Europe was to reject the UK’s unilateral move, as it would be bound to, the UK ‘would be left with no alternative but to withdraw’ from the Convention. 
The policy is highly isolationist. The brief section on the ‘international implications’ of the plan does not pause to consider the impact of withdrawal on the other 46 states on the Council of Europe or the Convention system as a whole. Nor does it address the implications for the UK’s ability to promote human rights and the rule of law in countries with significantly worse human rights records.
This is despite the evident risk of contagion to newer Council of Europe states. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, has argued that if the UK persists in its disrespect for the Strasbourg Court, exemplified by its protracted non-compliance with the judgment on prisoners’ voting rights, this would

… send a strong signal to other member states, some of which would probably follow      the UK’s lead and also claim that compliance with certain judgments is not possible,     necessary or expedient. That would probably be the beginning of the end of the   ECHR system.

The spectre of contagion has now found expression from a surprising source – the bereaved families of the Beslan massacre in 2004, in which 331 people, including 179 children, died after a three-day siege at a school seized by Chechen separatists came to a violent end.
A decade on, the families were in Strasbourg last week for a public hearing in their case against the Russian authorities, which stand accused of failing to prevent the massacre despite having detailed intelligence warnings; compounding the loss of life by the use of indiscriminate weapons such as flame-throwers; and failing to conduct an adequate investigation into the events in order to establish responsibility.
As their case was put by lawyers from the Russian NGO Memorial and the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) based at Middlesex University, bereaved relatives and applicants who were themselves hostages watched and wept, many wearing photographs of their lost loved ones.
‘The UK must not think only of itself’
The applicants, interviewed by EHRAC, spoke eloquently about the importance of the Strasbourg Court to their struggle for justice. Any future UK withdrawal would be a ‘catastrophe’ for the rule of law in Russia, they argue, and would be taken as a green light for President Vladimir Putin to flout Russia’s human rights commitments.
Voiced mainly by Ella Kasayeva, and her sister Emma Tagayeva, who lost two sons and her husband in the massacre, the reflections of the families should make for sobering reading for the UK isolationists.
They are translated below from the original Russian.

Lees verder in het originele blog artikel hier: http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2014/10/24/uk-must-not-think-only-of-itself-massacre-families-urge-uk-not-to-leave-echr-alice-donald/#more-24684





Interessant artikel? Deel het eens met uw netwerk en help mee met het verspreiden van de bekendheid van dit blog. Er staan wellicht nog meer artikelen op dit weblog die u zullen boeien. Kijk gerust eens rond. Zelf graag wat willen plaatsen? Mail dan webmaster@vreemdelingenrecht.com In verband met geldwolven die denken geld te kunnen claimen op krantenartikelen die op een blog als deze worden geplaatst maar na meestal een dag voor de krantenlezers aan leeswaardigheid hebben ingeboet terwijl wij vreemdelingenrecht specialisten ze soms wel nog jaren gebruiken om er een kopie van te maken voor een zaak ga ik over tot het plaatsen van alleen het eerste stukje. Ja ik weet het: de kans dat u doorklikt is geringer dan wanneer het hele artikel hier staat en een kopie van het orgineel maken handig kan zijn voor uw zaak. Wilt u zelf wat overnemen van dit weblog. Dat mag. Zet er alleen even een link bij naar het desbetreffende artikel zodat mensen niet alleen dat wat u knipt en plakt kunnen lezen maar dat ook kunnen doen in de context.