Summary:
David Cameron’s will to replace the Human Rights Act with a new Bill of Rights has alarmed European commissioner for human rights Thomas Hammarberg. The law was drawn after WWII in an attempt to guarantee basic rights to all European citizens. However, Conservative MPs have recently expressed their disagreement with this law, especially with the fact that it that guarantees prisoners the right to vote. Moreover, legal action has already been taken against some prisons in the UK that have denied inmates their right to vote. Hammargerg has expressed great concern about the issue because according to him the UK’s desire to weaken human right protection might be setting a bad example for other European countries with poor human right records.
My reaction:
I think that it is quite worrying that Conservative MPs are even considering replacing the Human Rights Act but it is even more worrying that some prisons have been getting away with this. In my opinion this is a form of abuse.
People who break the law are sent to prison and are deprived from their freedom as a punishment for it. However, someone who is serving sentence is still a human being. Just like we cannot torture him, we should not take their civil and political rights because their punishment is already being in prison. Besides this, most of us would agree that prisons should reform criminals and a good way to start being a proper citizen is to let him express his views in a civilized way (i.e. voting).So, I believe prisoners should be allowed to vote unless their political views are a threaten to the country.
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