New laws are weakening rights and checks on power in the UK, the Law Society has told the United Nations in a submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review on member states. 

Society president I. Stephanie Boyce said: ’There has been a sea-change in the UK since our last UN review. The Law Society believes a succession of changes to UK law are weakening people’s ability to uphold their rights or challenge the government. At the same time, the UK government has shown a disregard for international agreements that protect rights, from the UN Refugee Convention to the European Convention on Human Rights.’

Boyce said the government is ’taking a sledgehammer to a cornerstone of British justice with its proposed reforms to the Human Rights Act, making life easier for government at great cost to the nation, eroding people’s ability to enforce their rights and risking the UK’s reputation as a committed member of the international community of rights respecting nations.’

Meanwhile the Judicial Review and Courts Bill ’creates barriers to people challenging the state through the courts and giving British government bodies that act unlawfully an easier ride’, she said. 

’If fully enacted, these reforms will alter the landscape of human rights protections in the UK and the UK’s relationship with its international obligations, including UN human rights conventions.’