Rights Flashcards
Date and importance of the ECHR
1950
Outlined fundamental rights and allowed people to sue for their rights in Strasbourg
Strengths and weaknesses of ECHR
New rights protections - huge milestone
Very costly/time consuming for a UK citizen to bring a case to the ECtHR
Date and importance of the Human Rights Act
1998
Incorporated ECHR in UK law
Strengths and weaknesses of HRA
Rights could be sued for in UK courts - far more accessible.
People more aware of their personal rights.
Judges could now issue declarations of incompatibility to hold government to account - BUT these do not force govt to change the law (they have followed the SC 30/30 times though)
Not codified in a constitution, so rights not strongly protected
Date and importance of the equality act
2010
Outlawed discrimination on the basis of nine ‘protected characteristics’
Example of declaration of incompatibility
Belmarsh case in 2004.
Lord Bingham declared Anti-Terrorism Act incompatible with ECHR as it discriminated based on nationality.
Government amended the act!
Examples of rights being extended
Gay marriage (2014)
Age of consent equalised (2001)
Gender recognition (2005)
Case study - Abu Qatada
Radical Islamic extremist who was able to resist deportation for 8 years on the grounds he may be tried using evidence obtained under torture.
What criticism was raised by the Abu Qatada case?
Collective rights are not adequately protected if threats to national security cannot be deported in the name of individual rights.
How does judicial review show rights are protected?
Growing prominence - 4240 in 2000 to 15,600 in 2013 (down to around 5,000 p.a since then)
e.g. 2008 High Court ruled Gurkha soldiers should be able to settle in UK, Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that Parliament had to give its consent before the government invoked Article 50
Strengths and weaknesses of judicial review
JR is a means of government scrutiny and defending rights
However, places too much power in the hands of unelected, and therefore unaccountable, judges
Recent examples that show rights are not adequately protected
Public Order Act 2023
Rwanda policy
Immigrant rights - kept in ‘wholly inadequate’ accommodation according to Amnesty
Examples of pressure groups influence on rights
Campaign for Freedom of Information brought about FOI Act 2000
Howard League for Penal reform - small successes (e.g. allowing inmates’ families to send them books) but no tangible impact from their overall goal of reducing prison population
Liberty - failed to stop introduction of so-called ‘secret courts’, which permit terror suspect and major criminals to be tried without evidence against them being disclosed in full in 2013
Example of recent rights controversy
Lord Sumption (former SC justice)suggested that lockdown infringed on human rights - we are ‘entitled to take risks with our own lives’
Coronavirus Act 2020 - shows clash between individual rights and collective rights
Recent example of rights to protest being limited
Public Order Act 2023
Enacts legal repercussions for highly disruptive protests
‘Locking on’ now illegal and punishable by imprisonment
In October 2023, the Metropolitan police were able to arrest 60 activists participating in a Just Stop Oil ‘slow march’ under the new legislation
