Human Rights legislation is often attacked by right wing politicians and the popular press. In this article Shirley Gibb looks at why we need to support and defend the Human Rights Act.

 

On December 10th 1948, in the aftermath of the horrific events of the Second World War, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognises “the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”

 

The Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicise the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."

 

In 1949 The Council of Europe was founded by the Treaty of London. Ten states signed the treaty: Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Today almost all states in Europe are members of the Council

 

One of the Council's greatest achievements was to take the UN idea of Human Rights to a new level. In 1950 it drew up The European Convention on Human Rights, which was ratified by the United Kingdom in 1951.  The Convention created the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

 

It wasn't until 2000, however, that the UK Human Rights Act came into force, making most of the rights in the European Convention part of UK law.

 

Meanwhile Scotland was ahead of the game, having had Human Rights introduced into Scots law as part of the devolution settlement, The Scotland Act, in May 1999.

 

The Convention rights which apply under the Scotland Act and the Human Rights Act can be summarised as follows:

 

  • the right to life
  • freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
  • freedom from slavery and forced or compulsory labour
  • the right to liberty and security of person
  • the right to a fair and public trial within a reasonable time
  • freedom from retrospective criminal penalties and no punishment without law
  • the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence
  • freedom of thought, conscience and religion
  • freedom of expression
  • freedom of assembly and association
  • the right to marry and to found a family
  • prohibition of discrimination in the enjoyment of Convention rights
  • the right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions
  • the right to education
  • the right to free elections
  • the right not to be subjected to the death penalty

 

Before the UK legislation came into effect, British people were able to bring claims under the Convention, but only in The European Court of Human Rights. The right to apply to the Strasbourg Court still applies, but now it is possible to use courts here in the first instance.

 

For individual people to have the means to protect their human rights against those who would deny them is one of the reasons for the Acts.  But of course for human rights to be safeguarded, governments have to comply with them, and the Acts have had some good results in changing national law.

 

For example The UK Human Rights Act completely repealed the death penalty. This had been abolished for murder in 1969 and for treason in 1998, but was still in effect for certain military offences.

 

The European Convention has also affected the behavior of countries. Turkey wants to join the EU, and in 2002 it passed sweeping reforms to meet the EU's Human Rights criteria. In 2004 it banned the death penalty in all circumstances. Whatever the arguments are for Turkey ever becoming a member, Human Rights legislation has at least caused improvement in some of its legislation.

 

To have basic human rights enshrined in law that can be accessed by everyone seems desirable. However there are criticisms of the UK Act from both Conservative and Labour.

 

David Cameron has said he would scrap the Human Rights Act if he is elected, and replace it with a Bill of Rights for Britain.

 

Senior Labour politicians have criticised Human Rights legislation as being incompatible with the fight against terrorism.

 

Other criticisms are that The Acts protect criminals and prevent us deporting foreigners who pose a threat to us. But of course the Acts balance Human Rights against public safety. The rights, for example to freedom, protest and privacy can be restricted to protect public safety or national security. 

 

There have been many successful court cases undertaken since the Acts came into force.

 

Perhaps the most publicised cases in Scotland have been those concerned with “slopping out.”

 

In 2004, Robert Napier, a prisoner at Barlinnie won a case claiming that “slopping out” breached his human rights.

 

Since then more than 3,500 cases have been dealt with, and many more are going through the system. The Scottish Government is facing payouts of millions of pounds, and wants the law changed. 

 

Another famous example is the one involving author J.K. Rowling. She and her husband won a case against a company called Big Pictures (UK), whose photographer had taken long lens photographs of their son, David, as he was being pushed along an Edinburgh street in his buggy. Under Human Rights legislation David has a right to privacy and family life.

 

In 2005 a schoolgirl, Shabina Begum, was excluded from school in Bedfordshire for wearing a traditional Muslim gown. She won a case against the school under the Human Rights Act - specifically the right to manifest her religion.

 

As Barrack Obama mentioned recently in his Cairo speech, all major religions share a central idea, which can be roughly described as “treat others as you would be treated.” And religions and societies have always had rules to live by, which are expressed as commands or laws: do not kill, do not steal etc.

 

Human Rights not only tell you how to treat others, but also how you are entitled to be treated.  There is a school of thought that thinks this makes people in the age of Human Rights legislation more self centered. But there is surely nothing self centered about the huge and laudable idea that everyone is entitled to be treated with fairness, respect and dignity.

 

The organisation Liberty is running a campaign this year called Common Values, which aims to raise awareness of Human Rights. I will finish with their words:

 

“We believe in fundamental rights and freedoms - shared values that protect every member of the human family and the society we seek to build together.”