Human Rights

Question 1

Give 3 ways the British constitution defends citizens rights effectively

Answer 1

1. Statute laws have formed more explicitly defended human rights such as the right to request information from public bodies
2. People are able to use independent courts to assert their rights and demand access to information held about them in public bodies
3. Despite Parliamentary Sovereignty meaning no rights are entrenched or inalienable, as Parliament could repeal any rights at a whim, in practically this would never happen, and has not happened yet, as it would require an extremist government

Question 2

Give 5 reasons why the UK does not defend its citizens’s rights effectively

Answer 2

1. Many laws have loopholes and gaps which can make them ineffective e.g. the Freedom of Information Act’s FOI’s only have a 50% success rate
2. The uncodified nature of the constitution means that people are unaware of their rights - HOWEVER it must be noted that codification would likely not enhance awareness of rights in a significant way
3. Parliamentary Sovereignty means that Parliament can repeal any rights it wishes at a whim - no rights are entrenched or inalienable
4. With BREXIT, the EU no longer enforces that Britain be a part of the ECHR - HOWEVER it must be noted that Britain is highly unlikely to leave the ECHR as it would require an extremist government, and even if it did it, certain central human rights would almost certainly still be protected, as it is highly unlikely that people would vote for MPs who would take human rights away from them

Question 3

What are individual rights?

Answer 3

The rights that belong to the individual citizen e.g. the right to fair trial or the right to not face discrimination

Question 4

What are collective rights?

Answer 4

The rights that belong to a group of people which include:
- Formally organised groups i.e. trade unions
- Beliefs i.e. religion
- Characteristics i.e. gender, disability or sexuality

Question 5

Give an example of a clash between individual and collective rights

Answer 5

• Ashers Baking Company
• Refused to bake a cake for a gay rights activists that requested the slogan “Support gay marriage” with a picture of Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street, as well as the logo from Queerspace
• The Supreme Court, overturning the ruling of lower courts, ruled that the bakery was not guilty of discrimination, as it would have been a case of “forced speech”