Rights in Context

Question 1

What is the difference between civil liberties and civil rights?

Answer 1

• Civil Liberties are the freedoms which protect individuals from the state, other institutions and individuals. Civil Rights are the acts of government that protect them.

Question 2

What is the difference between civil liberties and human rights?

Answer 2

• Human Rights are basic rights needed by all humans – they operate on an international basis. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) identifies 30 basic Human Rights.
• Civil Liberties/Rights are guaranteed by the state (the one you live under).

Question 3

What are the advantages of Civil Liberties?

Answer 3

• Guarantee Freedoms. Without Civil Liberties democracy could not function. Politicians and voters need: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Association, Freedom of Thought and others.

Question 4

What are problems with Civil Liberties?

Answer 4

• Instituted, guaranteed and protected by the state, BUT the institution that can most abuse your civil liberties is the STATE.
• State often believes civil liberties clash with security – a key priority for any state – continuous tension between the two concepts.

Question 5

What were the Data Collection and Data Protection act?

Answer 5

• Data Collection: CCTV, DNA database, access to letters, phones, e-mail, texts etc. Allowed government to develop greater information on every individual.
• Data Protection Act (1998) Data held on an individual can only be used for specified purposes. Cannot be disclosed without consent. Individuals can access information about themselves. Bodies holding personal data must have security measures (firewalls). Individuals have the right to have factually incorrect information changed.

Question 6

The HRA and Equality Act?

Answer 6

• The Equality Act (2010) Public bodies, employers and other bodies and individuals cannot discriminate on the following grounds: age, disability, race, belief, sexuality, marriage status, pregnancy and maternity, gender reassignment, sex.
• The Human Rights Act (1998), incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law, was a major step towards a codified constitution and Bill of Rights since it defines many rights and liberties. This was seen as a means of guaranteeing civil liberties and individual rights in the UK.

Question 7

Why was there concern regarding civil liberties under conservative government 2016-2024?

Answer 7

• Withdrawal from the EU, loss of civil liberties that were in EU membership – worker’s rights, health & safety, environmental standards, consumer protection.
• The Judicial Review & Courts Act 2022 reduced ability of Supreme Court to look at Judicial Reviews concerning the executive, scrutiny of the government is lessened
• 2024 process Asylum seekers in Rwanda, in contradiction with the fact that all UN members expected to accept a right to asylum in the country arrived at. General campaign to reduce the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, very few legal ways of claiming asylum in the UK.
• Planning to reduce scope of the HRA, probably for asylum seekers, prisoners, suspected foreign terrorists and refugees – people who need it the most, this was never achieved though. Dubbed the Rights Removal Bill by its opponents.
• The Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Act 2022 curtailed right to protest. A Public Order Bill (2023) further restricted right to protest. Claimed protects public from nuisance protests and criminal damage.
• The Elections Bill 2022 - The Elections Bill 2022 stipulates that voters need to show recognised forms of photo ID to vote at elections. This is supposedly to reduce electoral fraud, despite the fact that very little electoral occurs in the UK. This will probably have the effect of disenfranchising poorer voters (Labour voters?)

Question 8

Collective and Individual rights?

Answer 8

• Gay couples have used the legislation so that Christian hotel and B&B owners cannot stop them from staying in their premises. Led to accusations of discrimination against the religious beliefs of those individuals affected.
• Anti-terrorist legislation frequently used to target individuals within the various Muslim communities – many of whom turned out to be innocent and spent considerable periods of time in prison on remand, or had their houses and businesses searched on a frequent basis.
• In COVID rights of the individual were overridden by rights of the collective population (right to life)

Question 9

What are limits to the protection of rights?

Answer 9

• Appeal process is expensive, complicated, and takes a long time. For many, beyond abilities. Is redress simply the preserve of the wealthy?
• Judges cannot initiate Judicial Review, only take-up grievances brought to them by individuals. Means poor legislation may go unchallenged, until individuals raise objections.
• Majority of Judicial Review applications are rejected. Of those taken 10-20% are successful. The judiciary tend to side with the state.
• Socialists believe that social rights – access to education, health, social care – poorly enforced in contrast to the individual rights favoured by Liberals.

Question 10

What are other methods used to protect rights?

Answer 10

• The Media: national/local press take up the grievance, give it large amounts of publicity. Much cheaper, though dependent upon the views of the press.
• Politicians: MP may take up cause, and use influence to redress the grievance. This can be done for a wide variety of issues.
• Pressure Groups: specialised knowledge, contacts, lobbying power and strategies that may resolve the grievance, sometimes for specific groups of people.
• Tribunals: particularly for cases of sexism and racism at work, though Conservative government reforms made them more expensive and so used less.
• Public Inquiries: these can be used for grievances involving a large number of individuals e.g. Hillsborough campaign.

Question 11

Do we have too many rights?

Answer 11

• Too much emphasis on rights, not enough on responsibilities – too many want ‘something for nothing’.
• Wrong people have rights – prisoners, suspected foreign terrorists, asylum seekers, illegal immigrants. Law is restricted in dealing with these groups, due to too many rights
• Worker, consumer and environmental rights restrict the activities of the free market – business faces too many restrictions
• Reduce security and ability of security services to protect public
• clashes between individual and collective rights.
• The right to privacy in the HRA has allowed important, wealthy and powerful people to hide behaviour that is, quite possibly, in ‘the public interest’. The media, in particular, dislike this.