{"id":4735,"date":"2015-06-16T09:02:19","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T08:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=4735"},"modified":"2015-06-16T09:02:19","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T08:02:19","slug":"cameron-urges-human-rights-overhaul-on-magna-carta-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/cameron-urges-human-rights-overhaul-on-magna-carta-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameron urges human rights overhaul on Magna Carta day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cameron\"<\/a>Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday called for an overhaul of British human rights laws as he marked the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta at a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II.
\nThe commemoration was held on the meadow in Runnymede, south England, where on June 15, 1215 the queen\u2019s distant predecessor King John sealed the foundation document for Western parliamentary democracy.
\nAddressing the crowd, Cameron said the charter had \u201cshaped the world for the best part of a millennium.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat happened here eight centuries ago is as relevant today as it was then,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe seeds sown here have grown throughout the world. In America; in India with Gandhi and South Africa with Nelson Mandela.\u201d
\nCameron\u2019s Conservative government is currently locked in a debate about Britain\u2019s human rights legislation.
\nThe party has promised to repeal the existing Human Rights Act, which incorporates the European Convention of Human Rights into British law, and replace it with a British Bill of Rights.
\n\u201cHere in Britain, ironically \u2014 the place where those ideas were first set out \u2014 the good name of human rights has sometimes become distorted and devalued,\u201d Cameron said.
\nIn a Facebook post, he warned that criminals were abusing the current system \u201cwith spurious appeal after spurious appeal\u201d and that Britain could not deport \u201cdangerous foreign terror suspects.\u201d
\n\u201cLet\u2019s put human rights right,\u201d he said.
\nCampaigners have warned that repealing the Human Rights Act would be a step back for Britain.
\nMonday\u2019s ceremony was the culmination of months of anniversary celebrations for the Magna Carta.
\nA replica of the Magna Carta, Latin for \u201cGreat Charter,\u201d made its way down the river on board the Royal Barge Gloriana on Saturday, leading a flotilla of 200 boats.
\nThe 3,500 word charter made the monarch subservient to the law and is widely recognized as the first charter protecting human rights and freedoms.
\nIt was drafted by the archbishop of Canterbury, and approved by King John in an attempt to subdue rebellious barons angry at his financial incompetence and treatment of noblemen.
\nThe document was annulled by the pope nine weeks later, ruling that the king had been forced to sign it under duress, but was later reissued after John\u2019s death in 1216.
\nSymbolically, the leaders of Britain\u2019s three traditional estates of power \u2014 the monarch, the prime minister and the archbishop of Canterbury \u2014 were seated next to each other during the ceremony.
\nAs part of the celebrations, a major new art installation comprising bronze chairs was unveiled at the site, honoring the calf-skin document\u2019s 39th clause, which gave the right to a jury trial.
\nPrincess Anne rededicated the American Bar Association memorial, the first permanent tribute erected at the site in 1957, and a statue of the queen was revealed at the site on Sunday.
\nThe four copies of the document that survive, two in the British Library and one each in Lincoln and Salisbury cathedrals, were brought together for the first time this year for an exhibition in London.<\/p>\n

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