Judges versus people
I believe I mentioned already that one of Melanie Phillips’ big points in Londonistan is what happens when judges become highly activist, get invested in some EU/UNabstract notion of “human rights,” and steadily erode away the rights of their own citizens in the inanely confident belief that the only humans with rights are those who come from places other than the judges’ own home country. There’s a new story out of England that perfectly illustrates this unhealthy de-nationalism, a liberal elitism that will always elevate a refugee’s rights — no matter how bad the refugee, or how evil his acts or intentions — over the rights of the rapidly disappearing indigenous Europeans (those with roots in a country going back more than 40 years):
The widow of a headmaster stabbed to death outside his school bitterly attacked a decision to let his foreign killer stay in Britain when he is released from jail.
Frances Lawrence said she was ”unutterably depressed” that the human rights of her family had taken second place to those of her husband’s murderer.
Philip Lawrence, 48, was killed in December 1995 when he intervened in a gang fight outside his school in Maida Vale, west London.
His killer Learco Chindamo, who was 15 at the time, was born in Italy and came to Britain at the age of five.
The Home Office has been fighting a legal battle to deport him when he completes his prison sentence, possibly next year.
But the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled today that such a move would breach Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
This guarantees the right to a ”family life”, and since Chindamo’s ties are in the UK and he speaks only English, the tribunal ruled that repatriating him to Italy would be unjust.
But Mrs Lawrence, 59, who was left to bring up four children on her own, was ”devastated and demoralised” by the ruling.
“I am unutterably depressed that the Human Rights Act has failed to encompass the rights of my family to live a safe and happy life,” she said.
advertisement“I am deeply concerned for everything I have worked for, including the setting up of the Philip Lawrence Awards (which honour young people’s efforts in tackling social issues.)
She added: “I feel as if I can’t fight any more – I feel I can’t survive this.
“I feel that I have always been a staunch advocate of the Human Rights Act but there is a missing term in it. It must encompass some responsibility.
“This isn’t just about me and my family. I am not solely thinking of me. I may be a mother but I am a human being as well.”
