26 April 2016
Amnesty slates British Home Secretary's threat to Good Friday Agreement in Brexit debate
BRITAIN withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights would rip up the Good Friday Agreement, Amnesty International in Ireland has said.
Tory Home Secretary Theresa May – tipped by some to be a successor to David Cameron – said Britain should pull out of the ECHR whatever the 'Brexit' EU referendum result is on 23 June.
The senior Tory minister claimed that the ECHR made deporting terrorist suspects harder, so Westminster should stay in the EU but leave the ECHR.
The Amnesty International Director in the North of Ireland, Patrick Corrigan, speaking in Belfast described the Tory leadership contender's comments as foolish and dangerous.
“Theresa May's proposal to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights would mean ripping up the Good Friday Agreement on which peace in Northern Ireland has been built.
“The Home Secretary's proposal is not just foolish, it is downright dangerous. To undermine an international peace agreement on which 18 years of peace has been based is reckless in the extreme.”
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