Rights

Question 1

What are some examples of basic human rights listed under the 1948 declaration?

Answer 1

All human beings are born free and equal, freedom from torture or slavery, freedom of opinion and expression, right to education, right to freely choose occupation

Question 2

Who chooses and enforces human rights?

Answer 2

International committee, the UN general assembly

Question 3

What are some criticisms levied at universal human rights?

Answer 3

Not easy to universally enforce these rights, UDHR is declaration not a law, hard to address violations, mostly western countries

Question 4

What are some positives which have come out of universal human rights?

Answer 4

Positive on setting international standards, help activists in their campaigns, International court of human rights makes binding decisions,

Question 5

What date was the Magna Carta?

Answer 5

1215

Question 6

What year was the Bill of Rights passed?

Answer 6

1689

Question 7

What year was the Race Relations Act passed?

Answer 7

1965

Question 8

What year was the Equal Pay Act passed?

Answer 8

1970

Question 9

What year was the Human Rights Act passed?

Answer 9

1998

Question 10

What year was the Freedom of Information Act passed?

Answer 10

2000

Question 11

What year was the Equality Act passed?

Answer 11

2010

Question 12

How did the Magna Carta lead to development in rights/formal equality in the UK.

Answer 12

Limit the power of the monarchy, ensure protection against arbitrary rule, right to trial by jury, monarch could only impose taxes with consent of the people- introduction of a democracy

Question 13

How did the Bill of Rights lead to development in rights/formal equality in the UK.

Answer 13

Protects people of England from military dictatorship, made parliament sovereign, not the monarch,

Question 14

How did the Race Relations Act lead to development in rights/formal equality in the UK.

Answer 14

Outlawed discrimination of most kinds on the grounds of a person’s race or ethnicity

Question 15

How did the Equal Pay Act lead to development in rights/formal equality in the UK.

Answer 15

Required employers to offer equal pay to men and women doing the same job

Question 16

How did the Human Rights Act lead to development in rights/formal equality in the UK.

Answer 16

Made European Convention on Human Rights a statue law, replacing negative rights with positive rights that had to be upheld by the law. Binding on all public bodies other than the UK Parliament, enforced by all courts in the UK

Question 17

How did the Freedom of Information Act lead to development in rights/formal equality in the UK.

Answer 17

Allowed the public access to information like laws the government had passed, helping to improve services like the health service, civil service. Modernised the system, matching with America

Question 18

How did the Equality Act lead to development in rights/formal equality in the UK.

Answer 18

Included other groups in society who have suffered discrimination like the disabled community and the LGBTQ+ community

Question 19

How are rights effectively protected in the UK?

Answer 19

Human Rights Act 1998- protects the European Convention on Human Rights as a statue Law in 2000

Freedom of Information Act 2000- gives access to government information, helps promote reform, can help hold people accountable

Equality Act 2010: outlaws any discrimination against any group, gives more people rights with their demands and interests, people can bring cases to court if they feel discriminated against and protect their rights

- Strong common law tradition
- UK is subject to ECHR
- Judiciary has a reputation for being independent and upholding the rule of law, even against the expressed wishes of government and parliament 
- Principle of equal rights is clearly established

Acts help civil liberties groups promote and defend civil rights and liberties in the UK

Question 20

How are rights ineffectively protected?

Answer 20

Ineffectively protected
UK parliament remains sovereign, so in practice, they have ultimate power to create rights and take them away, so there is no binding rights on parliament

Rights pressure group Liberty-> legislation alone doesn’t guarantee rights, up to parliament to ensure they are protected

- UK parliament can ignore the European Convention of Human Rights Rights in the UK can be suspended under special circumstances
-  Early 2000s, Parliament allowed government to hold suspected terrorists for long periods without trial, as a result of Islamic terrorist threat after 9/11
- 2020: various rights were suspended, like moving around the country, to help combat the Covid-19 pandemic

- Common law can be vague and disputed, can also be set aside by parliamentary statues
- Parliament remains sovereign so can ignore the ECHR or can even repeal the Human Rights Act
- Increasing pressure on government, as a result of international terrorism, to curtail rights in the interests of national security. The right to privacy, the right to association and expression, as well as freedom from imprisonment without trial are all threatened.  - Equality is subject to interpretation, can see some groups coming into conflict over the enforcement of their right, such as religious groups and LGBT groups

Question 21

Who are Liberty and what do they do?

Answer 21

• Aim of challenging government measures to restrict freedoms in the UK and combat the rising threat of facism
  
  • Objectives: fight, protect and uphold civil rights and liberties across the UK and develop a wider rights culture across society
  • Research and investigations into rights abuses and restrictions
  • Seeks to publicise through media campaigns
  • Brings legal challenges against rights abuses, support cases of discrimination

Work with government and parliament to advise on legislation

Question 22

What is the Steinfield and Keidan case?

Answer 22

• Couple who wanted a civil partnership instead of a marriage
  • Small but significant minority have civil partnerships
  • Introduced in 2004, given to same sex couples
  • Now they want the choice of either civil partnership of marriage, which same sex couples do
  • First couple got it in isle of man, not considered in England

Won the right for heterosexual couples to have a civil partnership, as well as the choice to have a marriage- Supreme court ruled
Judgement doesn’t oblige government to change the law, but may persuade them

Christians feel they don’t need to create extra laws

Question 23

What is the Belmarsh case?

Answer 23

DETENTION WITHOUT TRIAL

9 men detained by UK government without trial or charge for 9 years
- They claimed it was incompatible with the EHCR

Detained under anti terrorism
Implementation of the Human Rights Act
Tests if the Government is justified in suspending or removing rights if its in the interest of public security
Didn’t deport them bc they were at risk of ill treatment if returned to their home country

Derogation order
BUT judged made a quashing order saying the derogation order no longer had effect

Question 24

Why are rights not adequately protected in the UK?

Answer 24

• Rights based culture in the UK developed over time
  
  • Due to common law culture
  • Historical texts
    ○ Both only put into legislation later to further develop rights based culture

ECHR- go to courts to fight for their rights
Equality Act- applies in lots of circumstances for all people
- Culture developed over time

Constitution is unentrenched-> acts can overturn this, undermining the culture and rights

Social media- allow crime fighting agency to access evidence, no right of privacy

Question 25

What power do judges have over rights in the UK?

Answer 25

Judges- defend citizens from sovereign government
Armed with acts to defend acts
2017- breached the rights of 2 women
Can force government to revise its laws

Judges are independant from the other 2 branches of government
Citizens can take breaches to courts

Courts cannot strike down laws
2015- EU court of Human rights, called breach, Government didn’t listen

Question 26

How is representative democracy good for rights culture?

Answer 26

Representative democracy + rights based culture
- Rights are better when elected representatives decide on them, be more legitimate

- UK parliamentary sovereignty, laws become part of rights based culture

Question 27

When is Rights based culture under attack?

Answer 27

When there is serious threats like a pandemic or anti terrorism attacks?

Question 28

Is there a significant rights based culture in the UK?

Answer 28

• Has been developed in a number of ways such as …
  < Strong common law culture eg. Right for cohabiting or right for a fair trial
  < Historical texts eg. Manga Carta
  < Pieces of legislation eg. Bill of right 1689
  < There is also more modern legislation like the Representation of the people act 1948 (1 person = 1 vote), European communites Act 1973, Human rights Act from the UN, Equality Act 2010
  
  • However, the UK consitution is not entrenched meaning governemnt can overturn rights and liberty’s by new laws eg. Conservatives threating to remove the human rights act and in the 1970s interment was introduced in Northern Island to put suspected terrorist’s in jail with no trial
  • Increasing pressure on the Governemnt to cattail rights in the name of national security eg. Allowing acess to social media in government intrest
    The Equalities act does not solve the issue between collective and individual rights eg. Asher’s bakery

Question 29

What is the role of judges for protecting rights?

Answer 29

• Judges defend citizens from an all powerful governemnt with the rule of law eg. In 2017 judges ruled that Scotland yard had breached the rights of two women as officers did not investigate or apprehend John Walvoys jailed for life in 2009 for over 100 sexual assaults/rapes as well as in 2016 overturning the governemnts plan to provide legall aid for people who had not lived in the UK for 12 months
  
  • Independent from the other two branches of the government and can therfore act free from consequence
  • Also have the security of Tena and pain from 1701 so are free to defend individual liberates even if those polices are unpopular
  • Supposedly politically and socially neutral
  • Citizens can take their governemnt to court for a breach of human rights and appeal all the way up to European court of Human rights (non EU body)
  • Courts are weak and are unable to effectivly protect rights due to parliamentary sovereignty and they cannot strike down a law eg. In February 2015 the Europenan court of human rights ruled that the rights for UK prisoners’ were breached without the right to vote but this was ignored the government both previous and current
  • The human rights act is also limited so judges can only issue a declaration in incapability which does not force the governemnt to take action (advisory)
  • Judges are often accused of being politically biased with them tending to side with conservative values eg. Judiciary did nothing to challenge the anti trade union of Margret Thatcher that undermined collective rights
  • Judges are also socially unrepresented with the percentage of female judges in court standing at only 25 percent in 2015

Question 30

What is the role of politicians in protecting rights?

Answer 30

• Parliment can be considered the ultimate guardian of rights eg. With any law coming from elected politican in parlimet such as the human rights act
  
  • Representative democacy also further develops a right based culture
    The government has a very shaky history of upholding civil liberties eg. In 2016 the conservative government free from the colation governemnt passed the investigatory powers act and also limited the right to strike in the trade union act and the Blair governemnt also introduced controll orders (house arrest of terrorist suspects)

Question 31

What are universal human rights?

Answer 31

Enaliable and universal, cannot be granted or revoked