Calls to modernise human rights law too often assume that hostile public opinion cannot be changed by argument from first principles
A
rguments over the role of the European convention on human rights in asylum policy express a tension between the politics of an ever-changing world and the principle of immutable humanitarian values.
When Sir Keir Starmer observes that population flows in 2025 are different to conditions 75 years ago, when the ECHR was drafted, and that governments have a duty to adapt to the change, he is responding to political reality.
The prime minister is right also to warn that if progressive governments are seen to deny that such a challenge exists, the initiative will be seized by demagogues who are intent on dismantling the whole apparatus of refugee rights.
