Rights in Context

• civil liberties are protected whereas human rights are not guaranteed by law
• Human Rights: a right belonging to every person
• Civil liberties: rights and freedoms enjoyed by citizens which protect them from unfair and arbitrary treatment by the state and gov
• Common law: traditional conceptions of how disputes should be settled and what rights individuals have, it is established by judges
• Formal equality: refers to the aspects of equality that are established by law
• Early rights: first set of civil liberties introduced was in 1215 in the Magna Carta; first attempt to limit monarch power and arbitrary rule
• Freedom of Information Act 2000: has allowed the public to discover information that was not available in the past and MPs can be held even more accountable
• Equality Act 2010: There had been two parliamentary statues prior to the Equality Act that established formal equality in the UK. The race relations Act 1965 outlawed discrimination of most kinds. In 1920 the equal ly act required employers to offer equal pay to men and women
• Issues on privacy - judges have been accused of effectively creating a privacy law through the way they have interpreted the Human Rights Act
• Case study on Issue on Privacy: in high profile court cases priority is often given to Article 8 of the European Convention on HR over Article 10 (freedom of expression). Max mostly sex life published
• Issue on Privacy outcome: wealthy individuals can afford to take legal action have an unfair advantage
• Individual Rights over Collective rights - the HRA protects “undeserving individuals” rather than the freedoms of UK citizens
• Individual Rights over Collective Rights case study: Abu Qatada, a radical muslim since 1990s made speeches justifying the use of violence to promote the Islamist cause. He wasn’t deported for 8 years due to evidence may have been from torture
• Individual Rights over Collective Rights: in 2013 UK signed a treaty with Jordan pledging evidence would not be used, Abu was flown back to face trial and was declared of involvement in terrorist bomb plots
• Conflicts between pressure groups and individuals - the lack of clarity over the definition of rights has led to conflict between pressure groups and individuals
• Conflicts between pressure groups and individuals case study: In 2006-7 the campaign for freedom of info opposed an attmept by a group of MPs to exclude parliament. MPs argued they were entitled to confidentiality in their correspondence with constituents.
• Conflicts between pressure groups and individuals outcome: the bill passed the commons but failed to find a sponsor in the Lords and was dropped
• Rights of the individual can come into conflict with gov priorities - Terrorism attacks led to gov measures that limited civil liberties in the interests of pro texting the wider community
• Rights of the individual can come into conflict with gov priorities: ministers argued they were entitled to detain suspects without trial on the grounds it was a national emergency. Lords ruled it discriminatory. Gov then passed a new law introducing a system of control orders
• Rights of the individual can come into conflict with gov priorities outcome: 2011 coalition gov replaced the control orders with a modified version known as Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures
• The public have been willing to sacrifice some liberties at a time of heightened concern over security - govs have tended to place the safety of society above the protection of individual rights
• Public sacrifices over heightened concern over security case study: Howard league for Penal Reform struggled to persuade gov to implement its agenda as Criminals’ rights are not popular
• Public sacrifices over heightened concern over security outcome: gobs are unlikely to side with pressure groups that campaign for the rights of minority groups whom the wider public regard as under serving of sympathy
• Due to parliamentary sovereignty parliament has the power to create and remove rights
• It is not possible in the UK to create a codified set of rights that is binding on successive parliaments
• UK parliament has occasionally ignored the ECHR (e.g. anti-terrorism laws)
• Rights can also be suspended in times of crisis and emergency e.g. 1970s when the UK introduced internment in Northern Ireland
• Internment: imprisonment without trial of suspected terrorists
• UL rights under threat:

  • diluted protections e.g. national security/terrorism
  • parliamentary sovereignty
  • HRA and ECHR debatable in the UK system
• UK rights not under threat:

  • equality act 2010 protests characteristics
  • freedom of information Act 2000
  • common law
• Amnesty international objectives: to protect people wherever they believe justices, freedom, truth and liberty have been denied, exposing and ending abuses and educating society to make it a safer place
• Amnesty international were founded in London in 1961 by an English barrister, Peter Benson, and they operate as a global campaign group or an International Non-governmental Organisation (INGO)
• Amnesty international’s main work has been on raising public awareness of human right abuses/civil liberties
• Amnesty international can raise awareness by letter writing, tweets, emails, petitions, public demonstrations, vigils, publicising reports from extensive research and coordinating their 7 million members to ensure their campaigns are focused and targeted to help add more pressure
• Amnesty international successes:

  referendum result in Ireland that overturned the ban on abortions, Amnesty International having released a 2015 report entitled “Ireland: She is not a Criminal - the impact of Ireland’s Abortion Law”
• Another Amnesty international success: following 2 major oil spills in Bodo, Nigeria, in 2008 and 09 they campaigned for compensation of 15,600 farmers and villagers who were directly impacted. In 2015 Shell agreed to pay £84 million in compensation
• Failure of Amnesty international: despite 38,000 members in online action, China continues to detain Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim groups living in Chinese territory
• Another failure of Amnesty International: have had 2 work related suicides and shortly after a report revealed the toxic workplace culture, with racism, sexism, bullying and harassment
• Amnesty International are successful because of their large international membership and close relationship with other organisations + govs as well as strong financial resources. Won a noble peace prize in 1977
• Liberties objectives are to fight to protect and uphold civil rights and liberties across the UK and to develop a wider “rights culture” across society