A letter asking the Prime Minister to abandon plans to scrap the Human Rights Act has been signed by 164 organisations, including English PEN.
Other signatories include diverse organisations that work with new mothers, children, patients, carers, people with learning disabilities and mental ill-health, women experiencing violence, migrants and older people, and groups campaigning for LGBT rights, fair trials, access to justice, decent housing and against racial discrimination.
The letter, co-ordinated by the British Institute for Human Rights, was published today in The Times. It begins.
The Human Rights Act is something to cherish. It helps those delivering frontline services to make difficult ethical decisions and enables families to hold those in powerful positions to account. It is key to defending our free press and to protecting our democracy. It is the Bill of Rights we already have.
