THE government faces legal action from a human rights group after editing the ministerial code of conduct to remove requirements to obey international law, it was revealed yesterday.

Rights Watch UK has written to Tory PM David Cameron asking for the code, which sets out the standards of conduct expected from ministers, to revert to its former wording.

The group’s director Yasmine Ahmed said the change to the eight-page document, which was quietly implemented earlier this month and published by the Cabinet Office, was “seriously concerning.”

The new version states that ministers have an “overarching duty … to comply with the law” but omits the words “including international law and treaty obligations” which appeared in the 2010 version.

Campaigners fear that “the law” only refers to domestic law, meaning that the government is claiming the authority to ignore international law.

The government claims that the difference does not reflect a substantive change in the code, an assertion that Rights Watch UK rejects.

It said the amendment was “particularly worrying” at a time when the government is “expanding its use of lethal force abroad” and intends to “water down the Human Rights Act.”

Ms Ahmed said: “For the government to erase from the ministerial code the starting presumption that its ministers will comply with international law is seriously concerning.

“It evidences a marked shift in the attitude and commitment of the British government towards its international legal obligations.”

The new version was published with an explanatory note on an amendment on ministers’ contacts with the media but nothing on the removal of the international law reference.