In 2005, The European Court of Human Rights, in Hirst v UK (No 2) , held that UK legislation which prevents prisoners from voting breaches the right to vote under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Strasbourg Court reaffirmed Hirst in May this year in Scoppola v Italy and imposed a six month timeframe for Britain's delayed compliance with the ruling.
In order to meet the six-month deadline, the UK Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, last week presented the Voting Eligibility (Prisoners) Draft Bill to parliament. The draft bill contained three options: firstly, keeping the existing blanket ban; secondly, giving the vote to convicted prisoners serving up to six months; and finally, giving it to those serving up to four years. The bill will now be considered by a parliamentary committee and it is likely that it will take many months before the options will be put to a vote in the Commons.
The Justice Secretary is clearly against giving prisoners voting rights stating it would make him “physically sick” to give prisoners the vote. He said that the parliament had a legal right to exercise its sovereignty and supersede European Court rulings.
Lord McNally, in the House of Lords warned against “setting a precedent where it is optional whether you comply with the Convention and the Court” since it could reduce the amount of pressure ministers could bring to bear on countries with worse human rights records than the UK”
Irish prisoners have the right to vote following the enactment of legislation in 2006. In May 2012, Liam Herrick of the Irish Penal Reform Trust told TheJournal.ie that the resistance in the UK to giving prisoners the vote is difficult to understand and very different to the situation here. He said that the issue never raised controversy in Ireland and that the political parties reached consensus on it.
Click here to view the Voting Eligibility (Prisoners) Draft Bill:
Click here to read a UK Human Rights Blog article:
Click here to read a Guardian Law article:
Click here to read previous bulletin articles on this matter: