Revealed: The EU won’t obey the ECHR but insists Brexit Britain must

Blatant hypocrisy - The EU insists it must have its ‘autonomy’ but denies the UK that same right

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2022

The truth about a foreign court which still overrules the UK’s Supreme Court

The Government scored a rare (partial) victory in the High Court on Monday, when it ruled in favour of the UK’s plan to send illegal migrants arriving from Macron’s France to Rwanda for processing.

Whilst this sounds positive, yet again it seems that NGOs will appeal to the Supreme Court and then to the mysterious body in France known as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.

One single unnamed ECHR judge sitting in France overruled the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom this year, preventing the Rwanda deportation flights from going ahead.

Facts4EU.Org exposes the truth about the ECHR

How can the EU insist Brexit Britain obeys the ECHR when it has refused to sign up itself? In this report Facts4EU.Org summarises the illogical madness over who rules who in the EU’s world. Here are some facts about the ECHR which readers might wish to know.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary 1

The European Court of Human Rights – some basic facts

The EU insists the UK submits to the rulings of the ECHR
This is contained in the UK-EU Trade & Cooperation Agreement
However the EU refuses to submit itself
It is not possible to bring any legal case against the EU at the ECHR
It is, however, possible to bring a legal case against the UK
There are currently 11 cases pending against the UK
There have been 936 cases in total against the UK
Until March it was still possible for a Russian judge to rule on ‘human rights violations’ in the UK

The EU insists the UK submits to the ECHR but won’t submit itself

“At present, all 46 Council of Europe member states, including the 27 EU Member States, are already parties to the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the EU itself is not. This means that actions of the EU’s institutions, agencies and other bodies cannot currently be challenged at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.”
- European External Action Service (EU Commission), 18 Oct 2021

In its Opinion 2/13 of 18 December 2014, the Court of Justice of the EU (commonly known as the ECJ) held that the draft agreement of 2013 was incompatible with the EU Treaties. The most recent negotiating meeting took place on 10-13 May 2022 but still the EU is not subject to the rulings of the ECHR, unlike the UK.

Does the UK’s Supreme Court have to obey the ECHR? Yes

It has been suggested by some commentators that the UK does not have to obey the rulings of the ECHR, but merely to treat them as ‘advisory’. Below is what the ECHR has to say about this.

“[The Court’s] judgments are binding on the countries concerned and have led governments to alter their legislation and administrative practice in a wide range of areas.”
- ECHR document, accessed 14 Aug 2022

So, according to the court itself the rulings are indeed binding.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary 2

The European Court of Human Rights – the grandeur

ECHR is based in a grandiose suite of buildings in Strasbourg, France – purpose-built
The whole thing cost a fortune, with over 300,000 sq ft of floor space
Courtroom alone covers over 9,250 sq ft
Context: That's 12 times the size of the average UK property, for the main courtroom alone

[Sources: ECHR | EU Commission]

The ECHR is technically independent of the EU but….

It is often said that the ECHR is part of the Council of Europe, not the European Union. Technically this is true. However we invite readers to study the photograph below, which comes from the ECHR’s website.

Originally the EU took the flag of the Council of Europe. As a component of that body the ECHR uses it. However, given all the connotations of that flag these days, readers might question why the carpet of the main judging chamber of the ECHR does not have an amalgam of all the flags of countries which are members, including the United Kingdom?

Putin's Russia, ruling on UK ‘human rights violations’

Russia has long been a pariah state when it comes to human rights. The list of atrocities is endless. Readers will remember the killing in London by Russian security services of the dissident Alexander Litvinenko using a radioactive substance, to say nothing of the attack in Salisbury several years later.

Russia has also violated other nations’ territories (eg Crimea, Chechnya, Ukraine) in contravention of international law and yet it continued to be a member of the European Council and have a judge on the ECHR.

Finally this year, Russia was excluded. Incredibly, until March 2022 it was possible for a Russian judge to rule on ‘human rights violations’ in the UK.

‘Rule of law’? – What law?

The UK gave the world the Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus, and the principle of Common Law.

Conversely the ECHR operates under the principle of the Napoleonic code of Corpus Juris, where you are in essence assumed to be guilty, can be held in detention for very long periods, no right to silence, and none of the other rights which the British people take for granted.

Finally, the sole British judge on the ECHR was born and educated in Germany

Facts4EU.Org has analysed the judges of the ECHR. We also looked at the ‘seniority’ as defined by the ECHR.

The sole British judge was born and educated in Germany and sits down at No. 21 in terms of preference, below the judge from the tiny country of Cyprus. He moved to the UK in 1988, after completing legal studies in Germany.

In 2016 ECHR judges were paid €200,000 per annum tax-free. In today’s terms in pounds for a normally-taxed person that would be the equivalent of around £300,000 per year.

Photo right: Judge Eicke, the British judge

Observations

It’s difficult to know where to start with the absurdity that is the European Court of Human Rights

Let's just ask three questions:-

What on earth is a requirement to submit to the ECHR doing in a trade agreement?
Does the EU require this of all other countries it does trade deals with? (no)
And just what depths of hypocrisy can the EU plumb, when it won't even submit to the ECHR itself?

Like the European Court of Justice (CJEU) to which the United Kingdom is subservient under the terms of the UK-EU Trade & Cooperation Agreement, the ECHR is a highly-politicised court. You don’t get elected as a judge unless you’re a fully paid-up member of the human rights fraternity.

Facts4EU.Org is non-partisan but we are firmly against the ‘open borders’ and ‘all migrants are refugees’ mentality which exists in most of the Establishment. We believe in looking at the facts.

The EU’s total hypocrisy

Bizarrely, the EU requires all its member countries (which included the UK) to submit to this Court, but then its own ECJ blocked the EU from doing the same thing. It is therefore impossible to take the EU to the ECHR.

Under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement the UK can be tried and convicted – the EU can’t.

The British lion must roar

The United Kingdom has a very proud record in standing up for human rights. Real human rights. We also have a proud record of taking in vast numbers of refugees. It has barely been mentioned in the media, for example, that the UK has already taken in over 150,000 refugees from Ukraine.

The UK has Magistrates Courts, Crown Courts, the High Courts, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court. We have no need for yet another court - with some questionable judges sitting on it - to dictate its views to the United Kingdom.

We should stand tall and demand fundamental changes to organisations such as the European Council, the ECHR, and the United Nations and all its innumerable agencies.

If these are not immediately taken seriously we must ultimately withdraw. Resiling from the ECHR would be a good first step.

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[ Sources: ECHR | EU Commission | Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 23 Dec 2022

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Reader Comments 20

1. terence patrick hewett , Friday, December 23, 2022, 07:09:

All this govt. needs to do is pass an Act of Parliament to withdraw from the ECHR, to become Law: but the govt won't.....So they will pay the price at the next GE.

2. Buster , Friday, December 23, 2022, 07:23:

Now you are ranting at carpet. Amusing.
What you don’t mention about the Council of Europe and the ECHR - was that it was founded at Winston Churchill’s suggestion.
The Convention on Human Right was drafted by British lawyers after WW2 - as the horrors of the holocaust were uncovered - and it is based on the values of Churchill.
So the question remains why do Facts4EU and its supporters not respect the values of Churchill? Maybe the values of Putin, that you follow, are not compatible.

3. Gazzablack , Friday, December 23, 2022, 08:41:

More Bluster from Buster.
Yes the EHCR was Churchills idea, but:
.
He didn't sign up th UK to be under ECHR oversight.
.
He would NEVER have placed the UK under ECHR oversight.

4. Buster , Friday, December 23, 2022, 09:19:

The UK ratified the ECHR in 1951 - the first country to do so. It came into force in 1953.
Churchill was PM from 1951-55.
Churchill gave his united Europe speech in Strasbourg - the home of the court. As anyone who knows Strasbourg will know the court building is just over a mile from the German border. The location is deeply symbolic.
Your collective hatred of foreigners and rampant xenophobia has turned you Brexitists into deranged lunatics. We are not leaving Churchill’s ECHR. You are not taking our human rights away. The problem with foreigners is in your heads. And leaving stuff doesn’t fix your heads.

5. Old Albion , Friday, December 23, 2022, 09:43:

Unfortunately the ECHR which was created for all the right reasons has now morphed into a system of denying the UK the ability to enforce it's own laws.
It is time to leave it. Unfortunately again, there are still too many Remainiacs and UK haters in and around Parliament. The current weak Government won't take them on.
Too may Lefty lawyers milking the ECHR on spurious cases, just to discredit the Conservative Gov. (as if they haven't discredited themselves sufficiently)

6. Gazzablack , Friday, December 23, 2022, 11:23:

More bluster and deranged rantings from Buster.
.
The UK was the first to ratify the 'European CONVENTION on Human rights'.
But the UK did not join the 'European 'COURT' of Human rights', which wasn't established until 1959.
Winston's last tenure as PM ended in 1951.
.
The UK will remain a member of the 'Convention'
.
Nobody is taking your 'Human rights' away.
In fact by reasserting the primacy of the UK's constitution and courts your rights are protected..
.
We don't lock our doors at night because we hate the people outside, we lock them because we love the people inside.

7. Buster , Friday, December 23, 2022, 12:20:

[DELETED FOR APPALLING LANGUAGE.]

8. Gazzablack , Friday, December 23, 2022, 13:12:

Buster, please try acting your age and not your shoe size.
You are giving idiocy a bad name.

9. ste , Friday, December 23, 2022, 15:17:

the ECHR is just another institution that has been taken over by evil, just like bluster is. all these unelected organizations have evil at their heart be it net zero, the WEF, world bank etc etc..
the weak of mind believe their virtue signalling, and the greedy empty ones wring their hands, and evil prospers....

10. Paul j , Friday, December 23, 2022, 16:15:

So much hate from our one and only resident rejoiner.
Try not to swear, it only makes your argument look weak.

20 comments, page 1 of 2

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