Rights protection in the UK

Rights vs liberties

Rights - universal things that are humans are entitled to regardless of gender, ect - Unalienable

Liberties - rights recognised within a specific country

Human rights act 1998

• ‘Brings rights home’ - British citizen can bring rights cases to British courts (Rather than EctHR)

• Culture of respecting human rights, with legal duty for public bodies to respect rights

• Increases awareness of human rights (liberties in one document)

Freedom of information act 2000

Allows public access to information held by public authorities; over 400,000 requests (inc liberty report exposing polices use of discriminatory modelling)

Equality act 2010

• brought peace’s of discrimination legistlation together

• 9 protested characteristics (Inc age, Sexuality, Race)

• Used in Lee vs Asher’s

Restriction of rights - examples

• Ashers v Lee - restrictions of rights for Gay couple to be free from discrimination

• Othman (Abu Qatada) v UK - right of government to protect civilians limited

• Police, Crime, Sentencing and counts act 2022 - suppresses rights of protestors

Judicial review

Pros - allows citizens to challenge decisions made by public bodies, allowing courts to protect individual rights from state

Cons - courts unelected, so under democratic barter to Govt fulfilling wishes of electorate

Rights culture

Pros - culture of respect for liberties in parliment/public bodies e..g., committee on human rights

Cons - culture of respect not reflected through govt action (PCSC act)

How established are rights protections?

Pros- greater awareness of civil liberties due to HRA/equality act

Cons - criticism over application of rights by courts (Abu Qatada)