Charity joins call for human rights

Today Age Scotland joins 71 civil society groups in calling on David Cameron and Nick Clegg to secure and advance the Human Rights Act.  Their letter marks World Human Rights Day and follows the defeat of a motion supported by 72 MPs to repeal the Act.
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The signatories express concern about the "increasingly worrying tone of our domestic debates about human rights and the Human Rights Act" over the past year.  On the eve of the report of the Commission on a UK Bill of Rights they say "what should be a healthy debate about how best to secure the human rights of each and every one of us has, for far too long, lacked political leadership." This "jeopardises the progress we have made at home in ensuring that our human rights obligations lead to real change for people in their everyday lives" and "places our reputation for international human rights leadership at risk."
The signatories call on the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to ensure "the protection of universal human rights is safe in the UK." For them this means "securing and advancing our Human Rights Act."
Age Scotland spokesperson Doug Anthoney says: "Human rights are at the heart of many of the issues that older people tell us matter to them; from fuel poverty to dignity in care.  That's why we've signed up to this letter, and why today we're contributing our experience to help development of Scotland's National Action Plan for Human Rights."
Coordinated by the British Institute of Human Rights, the signatories represent the diversity and richness of UK civil society, from national organisations like BIHR, Liberty, Age Scotland and Age UK, to community groups working with disabled people and carers, lawyers and advocates, and international bodies like Amnesty International UK and Human Rights Watch. Across this diversity, what unites the signatories is a fundamental shared belief in the equal dignity of all people and the legal protection of basic human rights.