Human Rights Act

The Human Rights Act was passed in 1998. It makes most of the rights and freedoms in the European Convention on Human Rights part of UK law. This means that human rights must be followed, and that you can bring a case to court in the UK if your rights are not respected.

What are my rights under the Human Rights Act?

Your rights under the Human Rights Act are known as “Convention rights”. This is because they come from the European Convention on Human Rights. The Human Rights Act says you have:

• The right to life (article 2)
• The right to not suffer from torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (article 3)
• The right to be kept safe from slavery (article 4)
• The right to be free and secure (article 5)
• The right to a fair trial (article 6)
• The right not to be punished for something you did that was not against the law when you did it (article 7)
• The right to respect for your private and family life, home and correspondence (article 8)
• The right to think and believe what you like (article 9) – this is called freedom of thought, conscience and religion
• The right to say what you like (article 10) – this is called freedom of expression
• The right to hang out with other people and share ideas (article 11) – this is called freedom of peaceful assembly and association
• The right to get married and to have a family (article 12)
• The right to enjoy all your Convention rights without discrimination (article 14).

There are also 4 extra Convention rights that are included in the Human Rights Act. They were added to the ECHR after it was first agreed in 1950:

• The right to enjoy your possessions
• The right to education
• The right to free elections
• The right to be free from the death penalty.

Children and young people also have other legal rights in addition to those in the Human Rights Act. These include rights in education, health, social services and the courts, and the right not to be discriminated against.

What does this mean for me?

The Human Rights Act means that public authorities (this includes the Government, local councils, schools, hospitals and the police) have to respect your human rights. It is illegal for a public authority to act in a way that ignores your Convention rights.

This means that you can take a case to court if you feel a public authority has ignored your Convention rights. You may not always need to go to court – you can also use the Human Rights Act to tell a public authority that they have ignored your rights and that they must do something about it.

Why is the Human Rights Act important?

The Human Rights Act is important because:

It affects all other laws – it says that every UK law must respect your Convention rights.

It says public authorities cannot ignore your rights, and that they can be taken to a UK court or tribunal if they do.

It says that UK courts and tribunals must take Convention rights into account in all their rulings, not just in cases brought under the Human Rights Act.

Every new law (Bill) that is introduced to Parliament must comply with (follow) the Human Rights Act. The parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, made up of MPs and Peers, examines every Bill to make sure it does this.

If a law is found to go against the Human Rights Act after it has been passed, a court can declare it “incompatible” with human rights. This means that the Government must look at changing the law.

How does the Human Rights Act relate to my rights under the UNCRC?

The Human Rights Act gives children and young people a really powerful way to protect their human rights, by letting them go to court in the UK if their rights under this Act are ignored.

The UNCRC itself is not part of UK law. This means you cannot take a case to court if your rights under the UNCRC have been ignored, unless those rights are also part of UK law. However, when the courts are making any decision that affects a child, they should always think about the UNCRC to help them make their decision. This is especially important when they are working out how to apply children’s rights under the Human Rights Act. This is because the UNCRC is part of international law and the Government has agreed to follow it.