UN meddlers move in on human rights

Ministers are braced for another round of ‘human rights lecturing’ from the United nations.

A report published today is expected to criticise the UK’s prisoner vote ban, the treatment of gipsies and the use of surveillance powers.

But the Un human rights committee will face accusa- tions of hypocrisy, as its members include representatives of countries with appalling human rights records.

The 18- strong committee, which is chaired by Argentine Fabian salvioli, is made up of members f r om countries including egypt, Uganda and Algeria.

Among t he i ssues t heir report is expected to criticise is Britain’s long-standing ban on prisoner voting.

The committee will also focus on claims of discrimination against traveller communities, and the representation of women in the judiciary.

It will report on criticisms of surveillance powers used by the security and intelligence agencies that were made public in material stolen by ex-CIA employee edward snowden.

Mr salvioli, the director of Argentina’s Human Rights Institute, has written that Britain’s military victory in the Falkland’s war ‘ doesn’t give any political rights to fix limits or decide over sovereignty’.

Tory MP Henry smith said: ‘we played a leading role in drafting the original european Convention, in the wake of nazism and Communism.’

It is the latest broadside from the Un against Britain’s human rights record. In 2011, Un adviser Yves Cabannes visited Dale Farm in essex, site of europe’s largest illegal travellers site, to accuse the council of breaking human rights.