The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), represented by Deighton Pierce Glynn Solicitors and 11 Kings Bench Walk, appeared in the High Court in London on 26 July 2018 to challenge the UK Prime Minister over the unexplained deletion from the UK Ministerial Code of the “ overarching duty to comply with international law.“

In this hearing before the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the Master of the Rolls and Lord Hamblen, GCHR was determined to hold the Prime Minister to account for this apparent downgrading of the UK’s international law obligations including treaty obligations such as the UN Convention against Torture. The court has reserved judgement, however it is hoped that when the judgement is handed down we will see a clear affirmation from this high level court that Ministers are indeed bound by international law obligations and that efforts by the government to weaken their power have instead provided an opportunity for them to be shored up and underlined.

On a previous occasion when GCHR mounted a legal challenge to the UK Ministry of Justice over its semi-secret commercial bidding for Saudi prison services, the Ministry was obliged to back down, withdraw its bid and pay in full the costs incurred by GCHR in bringing the case.

The government of the UK can expect to face further challenges of this nature if it continues to claim to be a champion of universal fundamental rights in public while seeking to dilute them or to accrue financial benefits from wide-scale human rights abusers behind what they hope are closed doors.

GCHR will continue to stand up for the protection of hard fought international standards of human rights whenever possible where we see that States are attempting to weaken them. We will continue to scrutinise the record of governments such as the UK in particular because of the current and historical importance of their political, military and trading relations with the Gulf States.

International human rights standards have been of pivotal importance in the struggle to restrain state abuses against people across the world since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. In these challenging times we will maintain our efforts at full strength, in the courts and in all relevant fora, to support and protect Human Rights Defenders in the Gulf region and neighbouring countries.

The legal team is acting pro-bono and comprise of: Jason Coppel QC and Zac Sammour of 11 Kings Bench Walk instructed by Sue Willman of Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors.

For further comment:
Sue Willman, Deighton Pierce Glynn: +44207407007
Melanie Gingell, GCHR: +447572430903