Ministerial Code No 10 faces legal challenge to be rewritten

The Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) appealed for Downing Street to restore 13 words that were deleted from Ministerial Code No. 10. Turns out, the obligation of the government to sustain international law has been removed.

According to The Guardian, this certain change to the code last year dropped a passage indicating that ministers had an "overarching duty" to accomplish Britain's international agreements. That is why there is an online crowd-funding campaign that is supporting the legal case to expectedly involve lawyers who will tell that the code revisions might alter decisions regarding the use of military force abroad.

It was in 1992 when the ministerial code was first published, setting out the standards expected of ministers and that makes them liable to the Prime Minister for their conduct in the office, New Statesman reported. Eighteen years later, the preamble added that there was an "overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law including international law and treaty obligations and to uphold the administration of justice and to protect the integrity of public life."

However, in the new version released in October 2015, the sentence was edited, saying that there is only an "overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law and to protect the integrity of public life." This made both constitutional lawyers and senior civil servants dumbfounded.

The lawyers representing GCHR said the change could affect crucial decisions that ministers make about involvement in international conflicts, said RT. It may also affect the impact of international court rulings on British law and Britain's adherence to legislating human rights.

Melanie Gingell, GCHR advisor board member, also stated that the government's move of rewriting the code undermines the ministers' responsibility to parliament. She added that western governments not committing to international law will only result to lack of accountability.

As for the Cabinet Office, it denied any intentions of weakening international law when phrases were omitted from the code. However, a Conservative party policy document vows for the rewriting of the code to remove any ambiguity and in the context of Britain's withdrawing from the European convention on human rights.

Tags

Gulf Center for Human Rights, Ministerial Code No. 10, Melanie Gingell, overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law, to protect the integrity of public life, Prime Minister David Cameron, International Law

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