Right to vote sought for rapists, paedophiles in Britain

Right to vote sought for rapists, paedophiles in Britain

London, April 1 (IANS)

A top Eurocrat has left many people red-faced by advocating voting rights for rapists, paedophiles, and murderers irrespective of opposition by politicians in Westminster and throughout Britain.

Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, has accused Britain of ‘undermining a crucial dimension of the very concept of democracy’ by denying convicted murderers, rapists and paedophiles a say in elections, the Daily Express reported.

Britain’s 141-year-old blanket ban on inmates getting the vote ‘does not correspond to the European values of our times’, argued the Swedish-born former head of Amnesty International.

‘Prisoners, though deprived of physical liberty, have human rights,’ the bureaucrat said.

‘Measures should be taken to ensure that imprisonment does not undermine rights which are unconnected to the intention of the punishment.’

Hammarberg’s demand comes as the British government awaits a response from the European Court of Human Rights to a massive vote at Westminster against allowing prisoners in the voting booth.

Prime Minister David Cameron, meanwhile, has said the idea of prisoners getting the vote made him feel ‘physically ill’.