The preamble to the Human Rights Act 1998
(HRA) describes it as ‘an
Act to give greater effect to rights and freedoms guaranteed under
the European Convention on Human Rights’. To understand
the Human Rights Act you need to know something about the history
of the Convention.
The Convention was drafted after the Second World War. British
lawyers and civil servants were heavily involved in its drafting.
The United Kingdom signed up to the Convention in 1953 and was
one of the first countries to do so. In
all, 45 countries have now signed up to the Convention including most of the
east European, former communist countries and several countries that were once
part of the Soviet Union. The countries that have signed up to the Convention
make up the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe is quite separate from the
European Union.
The Convention is divided into ‘articles’. Articles
2 to 14 set out the rights that are protected by the Convention.
Over the years the Convention has been supplemented by a number
of protocols that have been agreed by the Council of Europe. Some
of the protocols just deal with procedural issues but some guarantee
rights in addition to those included in the Convention. The UK has signed up
to two of the protocols that guarantee additional rights (the First and Sixth
Protocols) but not to the others (the Fourth, Seventh and Twelfth Protocols).
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is the international court set up to
interpret and apply the Convention. It is based in Strasbourg, France and is
made up of judges nominated by each of the countries that are members of the
Council of Europe. Since 1966 people have had the right to bring cases against
the British Government in the ECHR.
Over the years there have been many cases in which the ECHR has
found that the UK has breached the Convention. One reason that
there have been so many findings against the British Government
is that there was no way that people could get redress for breach
of their rights under the Convention in the British courts.
This and the fact that taking a case to the ECHR can take several
years were major factors in persuading the new Labour Government
to pass the HRA shortly after they came to power in 1997. Many
people believe that the HRA is one of the major achievements of
this government. The HRA has brought access to the benefits of
the European Convention on Human Rights directly through the courts
here in the United Kingdom making it unnecessary to apply to the
ECHR in Strasbourg in most cases anymore.
Link to European Court of Human Rights Home Page
www.echr.coe.int/echr
The European Convention on Human Rights
Article 1 - obligation to respect human rights
Article 2 - right to life
Article 3 - prohibition of torture
Article 4 - prohibition of slavery
Article 5 - right to liberty and security
Article 6 - right to a fair trial
Article 7 - no punishment without law
Article 8 - right to respect for private life
Article 9 - right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
Article 10 - right to freedom of expression
Article 11 - right to freedom of assembly and association
Article 12 - right to marry
Article 13 - right to an effective remedy
Article 14 - prohibition of discrimination
