A future Tory government would disengage from international bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights if they no longer support British interests, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said this morning.
In a heavily-trailed address to thinktank Policy Exchange, Badenoch attacked what she called a 'naive' trust in institutions such as the International Criminal Court. 'We have let ourselves be fooled into thinking that international law alone can keep the peace.'
With the world order under threat from 'a new axis of authoritarian states' she said 'we can no longer simply put our trust in international partnerships or supranational institutions as ends in themselves'. Vladimir Putin's expansionist ambitions, for example, 'will not be swayed by our membership of the International Criminal Court'.
The European Convention on Human Rights, for example, had 'mutated out of all recognition', by Strasbourg rulings in areas such as climate change. 'International law should not become a tool for NGOs and other critics to seek to advance an activist political agenda through international bodies and our domestic courts,' she said. 'And if international bodies are taken over by activists, or by autocratic regimes like China or Russia, we must use our influence to stop them. And if that fails, we will need to disengage.'
While such talk would prompt 'pearl-clutching among those who wish this was still 1995', Badenoch said 'we must stop being naive about international affairs'.
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