11 h. ago What are the legal issues around Britain helping Trump bomb Iran?

Keir Starmer is weighing up whether to back the US and – as a lawyer – will be aware of the legal landscapeMiddle East crisis – live updatesUK politics live – latest updatesAs Keir Starmer considers whether Britain should support the US if Donald Trump decides to bomb Iran, the attorney general, Richard Hermer, has reportedly warned him that UK involvement could be illegal. The prime minister was an outspoken opponent of the Iraq war when he was a human rights lawyer in 2003 and will be well aware of the thorny legal issues around engagement in strikes against Iran. Continue reading...

Politics

24 h. ago Human rights laws allowing 'feckless fathers' to avoid being deported, top police chief claims

Human rights laws are allowing offenders who have 'fecklessly' fathered children in Britain to avoid deportation, a top police chief said yesterday.

Events

27 h. ago Iran executed at least 975 people last year, the highest number since 2015, UN report says

A new United Nations report says that Iran carried out executions at “an alarming rate” last year with at least 975 people killed

Politics

27 h. ago MP who first blew whistle on child rape gangs was smeared as a racist, says son

John Cryer, who sits in the Lords, highlighted the backlash faced by his mother Ann after she went public over the scandal in 2003.

Events

32 h. ago Shabana Mahmood says UK will seek reform of human rights convention

Justice secretary says ‘public confidence in the rule of law is fraying’ but she wants to protect ECHR by changing itEchoes of Brexit as Starmer is pressed to seize initiative on human rightsThe justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said Britain will pursue reform of the European convention on human rights (ECHR), both at home and in Strasbourg, saying “public confidence in the rule of law is fraying”.Mahmood’s warning in her speech at the Council of Europe came as the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said she would undertake an examination of how the courts were applying the right to freedom from degrading treatment. Continue reading...

Politics

33 h. ago Labour plan to stop foreign criminals exploiting human rights laws to avoid deportation rejected by Eurocrats

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood used a speech in Strasbourg to set out how the European Convention on Human Rights 'feels out of step with common sense' and needed to 'evolve'.

Events

33 h. ago Two fugitives who are wanted for murder and child rape in Brazil are allowed to stay in Britain after using human rights laws to avoid extradition

Marlon Martins Dos Santos and Nicolas Gomes De Brito have both successfully fought extradition to Brazil after claiming it would violate their rights.

Events

36 h. ago Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood calls for major reform of European Convention of Human Rights because it's blocking deportation of foreign criminals

Killers, drug dealers and radical clerics are among those who have managed to resist being kicked out of the country by citing the treaty, which is embedded in UK law.

Society

39 h. ago Gender critical group threatens legal action over court judgment implementation

Sex Matters has sent ministers a formal ‘letter before action’.

Events

39 h. ago Abortion remains a criminal offence in the UK because of the left’s timidity. We must learn from that – and fast | Stella Creasy

Tuesday’s vote in parliament was a missed opportunity – and proof that progressives are allowing the right to shape the key debatesAround the world, the antis are joining forces. Whether anti-abortion, anti-transgender, anti-immigrant, anti-human rights or just anti anyone who doesn’t look like them, they are collaborating; amplifying one another and sharing their political and cultural successes. Their rhetoric now dominates our discussions, and increasingly our ballot boxes. In response, some argue caution or even capitulation – as if we can stop the public being dragged to the extremes if we speak in hushed tones or water down our ambitions for social justice. As we witness the consequences of this, it is time to speak up for those values that drive us to show that another future is possible.On Tuesday, parliament had the opportunity to set abortion in England and Wales on the same modern, regulated footing as it is in Northern Ireland: as a human right. Instead, a vote on this w...

Events

43 h. ago Shabana Mahmood warns foreign criminals 'should expect to be deported'

The Justice Secretary will say the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which Winston Churchill helped draw up after the Second World War, needs to be overhauled

Events

45 h. ago Israeli strikes have killed nearly 600 in Iran, human rights group says

A human rights group says Israeli strikes have killed at least 585 people across Iran and wounded 1,326 others

Events

58 h. ago Voices: The tide has turned against the European Convention on Human Rights

As two backbench Labour MPs break ranks to voice their support for rewriting the ECHR – following an even more surprising intervention from Lib Dem leader Ed Davey – have both sides of the Commons realised that the only way to remain in the convention is to rewrite it, asks John Rentoul

Politics

59 h. ago Mum and human rights lawyer named as 'murder' victim after fatal stabbing and house explosion

The victim has been identified as "lovely" lawyer and mother-of-two Annabel Rook, whose body was discovered with knife wound injuries following the explosion.

Events

3 d. ago Grooming gang ringleader who Keir Starmer helped jail in 2012 has STILL not been deported back to Pakistan after winning human rights battle

As Director of Public Prosecutions between 2008 and 2013 - before entering politics - Sir Keir Starmer insists he tackled Asian child abuse rings 'head on'.

Events

3 d. ago Expert issues advice on who's responsible if a neighbour's tree overhangs your garden

There are certain rules you need to follow if branches from a neighbours tree are overhanging onto your property. To avoid disagreements property lawyers have explained what you need to do to avoid getting into trouble

Politics

3 d. ago UN rights chief decries 'horrifying' suffering in Gaza and urges leaders to pressure Israel, Hamas

The U.N. human rights chief says Israel’s warfare in Gaza is inflicting “horrifying, unconscionable suffering” on Palestinians and has urged government leaders to exert pressure on Israel’s government and Hamas to end it

Politics

4 d. ago Almost 10,000 gender certificates granted amid rise in Gen Z applications

Analysis has been compiled by the PA news agency using data published by the Ministry of Justice.

Politics

4 d. ago Kathy Lette looks back: ‘Older women are invisible, so I make sure to do something outrageous every day’

The author on her love for Spike Milligan, the furore over Puberty Blues, and why being middle-aged is greatBorn in 1958 in Sydney, Kathy Lette burst on to Australia’s literary scene in 1979 with Puberty Blues. Co‑written with Gabrielle Carey, the irreverent portrait of teenage girlhood became a cult classic, a film and a TV series. Relocating to London in the 1980s, Lette has worked as a columnist, television writer and campaigner, and has published a string of bestselling comic novels. She lives in London and has two children, Julius and Georgina, with her former husband, the human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson. Her latest novel, The Revenge Club, is out now.When I was 19, I was in a band called the Salami Sisters. As well as the occasional gig in a pub, we’d busk. The problem was, we kept getting arrested. I was furious. How come we were getting arrested for singing, when actual rapists were running free? My sister was a police constable at the time, so one day I bor...

Politics

4 d. ago China considers lifting sanctions on UK parliamentarians as relations warm

Exclusive: Restrictions to be reviewed as embassy official says ‘UK-China relations are showing a positive momentum’China is considering lifting the sanctions it imposed on UK parliamentarians in 2021, in the latest sign of warming relations between London and Beijing.The Chinese government is reviewing the sanctions, which it introduced four years ago in response to what it called “lies and disinformation” about human rights abuses in Xinjiang, according to two UK government sources familiar with the conversations. Continue reading...

Politics