September 21, 2018

Human Rights under threat by Brexit

located:	United Kingdom
editor:	Gurmeet Singh

It's harder to conceive of a more nightmarish situation for technocrats than Brexit; every path leads to an impasse, and what's more terrifying for managers and middlemen than political problems. Take the issue of the Irish border with Northern Ireland. Certain versions of Brexit have been characterised as directly reopening the old conflict between Unionists and Republicans, something no one wants to see. The questions of Brexit being racist has also been brought up.

The recent meeting of EU leaders in Salzburg was supposed to finalise the proposed Brexit deal and be the basis of negotiations for the next few months until March 2019, when the U.K. formally leaves the union. Instead, Theresa May's plan was rejected out of hand by the EU (it has already been rejected by many of her own MPs) meaning the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit has increased tenfold. 

What would be the problem with a no-deal Brexit? Certainly, there would be problems of trade and perhaps even global economic stability (if Britain causes a recession which affects Europe, then this might indeed be a kind of global re-run of 2008). There would also be massive problems for Britain internally, including legal issues surrounding people's residence (especially if they come from the EU), and of course, there will be well-documented problems regarding food supply. 

One area which has been less discussed is human rights however. While Brexit certainly undermines these rights in principle (the EU is synonymous with human rights in the U.K., and by leaving the EU, many believe the U.K. is also abandoning the wasteful and anti-common sense laws), it may actually undermine these rights in a concrete way. The U.K. has agreed to adopt into law all EU domestic laws on day one of Brexit, apart from one: the EU charter of fundamental rights. 

Some of the implications of doing so will be: pregnant women in the U.K. could have weaker rights, parents at work could be undermined, and people with disabilities might also find it harder to prove discrimination. The latter point is particularly shocking, given the fact that many people with disabilities have already faced immense discrimination in trying to prove the existence of their disabilities; the Ken Loach film "I, Daniel Blake", showed just these issues. 

The fact is that the U.K. is six months away from leaving a political and economic organisation that has been the basis of its success for the last three decades. It is now becoming increasingly likely that it will do so without any form of agreement as to how the nation will manage this exit. There is an extreme danger that this will only pique the current climate of febrile anti-migrant feeling in the U.K., but also hurt all people living in the country by undermining their human rights. This is all to say nothing of the distraction the entire Brexit problem will cause the EU when dealing with more serious problems such as migrant deaths in the Mediterranean and also the rise of the far-right in its member states. 

The U.K. needs to find a deal that is amenable to the EU, or cancel Brexit in order to protect citizens' rights, and also the esteem in which rights are held. I hope the latter is the case, although I have little belief it will happen. If there is enough political will, rights will be undermined.

Photo: flickr/muffinn