Free Republic

EHRC calls for clearer guidance for officers to avoid creating a ‘chilling effect’ on freedom of expression The UK’s official human rights watchdog has written to the government and police expressing concern at a potentially “heavy-handed” approach to protests about Gaza and urging clearer guidance for officers in enforcing the law. In the letter to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, and Mark Rowley, the head of the Metropolitan police, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said the perception that peaceful protest could attract disproportionate police attention “undermines confidence in our human rights protections”. ...

Trans women should not be allowed to use women’s lavatories, the UK’s equalities watchdog has declared. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has issued interim guidance after the Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the legal definition of a woman was tied to biological sex. It comes as the Government considers plans submitted by the watchdog last week for a wider overhaul of equality laws aimed at protecting women-only spaces. In an update published on Friday night, the EHRC told employers, pubs, shops and hospitals that they must all act in line with the Supreme Court judgment. “If...

I should say at the outset that I was turned down by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for a post they advertised. I'd never have dared apply had it not been for Trevor Phillips, who headed it at the time. "Why don't you have a Christian on board?" I had asked him. "Why don't you apply?" he'd graciously replied. Alas, he was leaving the Commission when he said it. But when I saw his replacement – Baroness O'Neill – I wasn't upset about my failed application: the philosopher is, at least on paper, Christian. She'd look after the...

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday criticized Turkey for its handling of the trial of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan. The court said the trial was unfair because a military judge was present for some of the hearings and because Ocalan was given only restricted access to his lawyers. The ruling means Turkey should in theory be obliged to try Ocalan again, but it is not binding. Turkey blames him for 30,000 deaths in a 16-year Kurdish separatist campaign by the Kurdish Workers Party for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey. Ocalan was given...