UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has asked other European leaders to update the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as out-of-date provisions are causing political unrest and giving power to the extreme right. Starmer made the comments at a meeting of European Union leaders where the main focus was on security, including migration. Starmer explains migration and security breaches by the ECHR. Starmer explains that the rules that the ECHR outlines stop a government from effectively deporting and claim rule over asylum papers.
The lack of rules over asylum papers causes conflict
Starmer explains that the lack of effective rules over asylum papers is what drives the public voice, right parties to use immigration as a political prop.
Starmer explains that the ECHR is over-designed.
“We need a framework that protects human rights and allows states to control the movement of people to keep the democracy organized at a peaceful and stable pace.”
By the European and Balkan route, the irregular movement of people has increased over the sea to Europe, and Starmer illustrates the lack of movement for a weak imbalance to humanitarian establishment, aid, and planned security worries.
Starmer’s proposal: A controlled system for foreigners
Starmer is now advocating for other leaders to center the democracy the way they intend to control the movement of people to stop the growing shift toward right-wing extreme populism.
An ITV News article observes that Starmer’s proposal involves looking again at some provisions that allow for last-minute legal challenge to deportations—i.e., that some critics feel is exploited too often. He is not proposing to opt out of the ECHR but is proposing to ‘modernize’ it instead.
Starmer’s request is situated against the background of recent far-right electoral gains in several EU member states, driven by fears of migration and loss of control. He noted that mainstream parties’ failure to offer policy solutions to the problem of migration and people smuggling would allow far-right parties to monopolize this issue in the public domain.
A struggle for public democratic value: Is the system broken?
Starmer presented the issue as a struggle for public democratic values.
“If we allow the system to be seen as broken, we hand victory to those who want to dismantle it entirely.”
Concern remains that, in order to reform the ECHR, it must not be at the expense of basic rights. Advocacy groups for the rights of others argue that a loss of rights to protect others would be a slippery slope.
Starmer argues that his proposal would not lose protection of the fundamental rights of others, but would act to protect those rights by adding new structures that would protect rights within the system of the states, such as limitations on the scope of appeals and on the obligations of the state, in order for the system to be more efficient.
There will be serious crossfire before the forthcoming European Council summit
Legal analysts say that it will be almost impossible to introduce any sane changes as the ECHR represents one of the foundational blocks of Europe. The political will to make these changes is palpable, and advocacy will continue.
“Any attempt to modernize the ECHR must strike a careful balance between state sovereignty and the protection of fundamental rights.”
An uncertain future
In the face of the far-right movements, European migration pressures, and internal debates, one of the more pressing European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) debates is that of the implementation and modernization of the European Convention on Human Rights, and with it, the balance of political stability alongside human rights. It is certain that the dialogue is no longer theoretical, but it is equally certain that the proposed changes will be extensive.
