Rights in Context

Question 1

What is formal equality?

Answer 1

Equal status of all members of society regardless of social background

Question 2

What is common law?

Answer 2

Traditional conceptions of how disputes should be settled. It is established by judges using judicial precedents

Question 3

What is the Magna Carta?

Answer 3

Signed in 1215. A charter that for the first time limited the power of the monarch (King John)

Question 4

What is the Bill of Rights

Answer 4

Based on the ideas of philosopher John Locke. Signed in 1689 it set out constitutional requirements on the Crown to seek the consent of the people as represented in Parliament.

Question 5

What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.?

Answer 5

Adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and motivated by the horror of the Holocaust. It listed 30 articles detailing individual rights and freedoms

Question 6

What is the European Convention on Human Rights? (ECHR)

Answer 6

Drafted in 1950 by the Council of Europe, an organisation to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. Britain helped draft the convention but was not bound by it until 1998

Question 7

What is the Human Rights Act?

Answer 7

Brought into effect the ECHR in Britain. Replaced the previous patchwork of statute and common law.

Question 8

What is the Freedom of Information Act?

Answer 8

Passed by the Labour government in 2000. Allowed citizens and the media access to information held by public bodies

Question 9

What is the Equality Act?

Answer 9

It became law in 2010. It built upon the Race Relations Act 1965 and the Equal Pay Act 1970. It outlaws discrimination against any group

Question 10

Protected characteristics of the Equality Act

Answer 10

Age, gender reassignment, being married or in a civil partnership, being pregnant or on maternity leave, disability, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex.

Question 11

What are civil liberties?

Answer 11

Freedoms enjoyed by citizens that protect them from unfair treatment from the state

Question 12

What are civil rights?

Answer 12

Rights and freedoms protected by the government

Question 13

Examples of when rights are violated in the UK

Answer 13

Internment (imprisonment without trial) in Northern Ireland in the 1970s
The holding of suspects without trial following 9/11