Minister insists govt will not withdraw from ECHR

ODN

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook insists the government are “not planning to either withdraw permanently or temporarily” from the European Convention on Human Rights but admits the ECHR does need “reform”. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00We're not planning to either withdraw either permanently or temporarily from the ECHR

00:07because it underpins a number of absolutely vital agreements, including the Good Friday Agreement.

00:13That's not to say that we don't think the Convention requires reform.

00:16We're making the case for reform in Europe.

00:19The Justice Secretary was at the Council of Europe in June

00:22arguing for a fundamental rethink of aspects of the Convention

00:26and we are changing how it applies domestically, for example, looking at Article 8

00:31and the way that that can be abused to frustrate our laws in this country.

00:35So it's not to say the Convention doesn't need reform,

00:38but it's not in the national interest for us to withdraw either permanently or temporarily from it.

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