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Jack Straw and the elephant in the room at the Ministry of Justice

By John Hirst

Jack Straw and the elephant in the room at the Ministry of Justice

Human rights

Jack Straw MP, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.

The Human Rights Act ensures that your human rights are respected by public authorities, and makes it unlawful for them to act against your rights. If you believe that your rights have been interfered with unreasonably, it gives you a way of doing something about it.

We are responsible for developing human rights policy. We can explain what the Act should do and how public authorities should behave under the Act. However, we can't investigate alleged human rights violations and we can't give legal advice. Everyone in the UK is protected by the Act.

The Human Rights Act does not ensure that your human rights are respected by public authorities. It requires a judge to do that. I accept that the HRA sets out what constitutes unlawful conduct by a public authority. As I understand it the Ministry of Justice is a public authority. Lets just say, that Jack Straw, who claims that he is responsible for developing human rights policy, fails to act responsibly and does not develop a human rights policy in relation to convicted prisoners being granted their human right to the vote. This means that his conduct is susceptible to Judicial Review. However, it also means my having to go into court and complain to a judge. The judge's boss is the Lord Chancellor, who also happens to be Jack Straw.

Admittedly, it is the old boss, who is a right proper Charlie, who is the real villain of the piece. Nevertheless just as when a Mafia boss is replaced, the new Mafia boss assumes control and the criminal activities continue. In this case Falconer acted against convicted prisoners human rights, and Jack Straw has continued in the same vein. The new broom has not swept clean. Rather he has attempted to sweep the Elephant in the room under the carpet. Surely, something as large as that will trip him up?

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on January 31, 2009 (boomark / email).