ERG strengthens contact with UK rights groups
Equality Rights Group Chairman Felix Alvarez, has returned from a four day UK trip set to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of Britain’s accession to the European Convention of Human Rights.
Mr Alvarez said: “It is an essential part of our work as a human rights NGO that, as more and more local public dialogue on human rights is achieved, we also liaise and consult with others in the civil and human rights fields internationally.”
Listing these the ERG Chairman named “top” human rights lawyers such as Lord Anthony Lester or Professors Robert Wintemute, Takis Tridimas, Conor Gearty, William Bowring, Philip Leach, David Anderson, ex President and Judge of the European Court of Human Rights Sir Nicholas Bratza, Shami Chakrabarti and Peter Tatchell.
Mr Alvarez said these “are always valuable contacts and leaders of opinion whose input to the work we do at Gibraltar level is always useful and important for us in ERG to put into our own local perspective.”
He also said that he held “detailed face-to-face discussions” on the ERG’s current campaign for One Civil Marriage Law For All and the possibility of Government opting for a referendum on the issue.
“We are grateful for the ongoing counsel and support received from our various interlocutors and are satisfied with the high level of personal commitment we have received on this and other issues of importance to ERG as we work on future campaigns,” said Mr Alvarez.
He also said that the ERG are planning for an outcome should the possibility of a UK exiting the EU and/or of withdrawal from the European Convention for Human Rights come to fruition. These “are issues we must be thinking about in terms of how they could affect us in Gibraltar, in order to properly calibrate our ongoing work. Again, these and other issues were very usefully explored in much depth,” said Mr Alvarez.
