The Human Rights Act 1998 (also known as the Act or the HRA) came into force in the United Kingdom in October 2000. It is composed of a series of sections that have the effect of codifying the protections in the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.
All public bodies (such as courts, police, local governments, hospitals, publicly funded schools, and others) and other bodies carrying out public functions have to comply with the Convention rights.
This means, among other things, that individuals can take human rights cases in domestic courts; they no longer have to go to Strasbourg to argue their case in the European Court of Human Rights.
The Act sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms that individuals in the UK have access to. They include:
- Right to life
This means that nobody - including the government - can try to end your life. It also means that you have the right to be protected if your life is at risk.
Similarly, public authorities should consider your right to life when making decisions that might put you in danger or which affect your life expectancy.
- Freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment
The Human Rights Act protects you from:
- torture (mental, physical or both);
- inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and
- deportation or extradition (being sent to another country to face criminal charges) if there is a real risk you will face torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Public authorities must not inflict such treatment on you, and they must also protect you from this treatment where it comes from someone else. For example, if they know you are suffering inhuman or degrading treatment, they must intervene to stop it.
What is torture?
Torture occurs when someone acting in an official capacity (for example a police officer or soldier) deliberately causes serious pain or suffering (physical or mental) to another person. This might be to punish someone, or to intimidate or obtain information from them.
What is inhuman treatment?
Inhuman treatment or punishment includes:
- serious physical assaults
- psychological interrogation
- inhuman detention conditions or restraints
- failing to give medical treatment or taking it away from a person with a serious illness
- threatening to torture someone, if the threat is real and immediate.
- Freedom from slavery and forced labour
The Human Rights Act protects your human right not to be held in slavery or servitude.
Slavery is when someone actually owns you like a piece of property.
Servitude is similar. You might live in the person’s property, work for them and be unable to leave, but they don’t officially own you.
The law also protects you from forced labour – forcing you to work under the threat of punishment that you have not agreed to accept.
- Right to liberty and security
You have a right to your personal freedom. The government cannot take away your freedom by detaining you without good reason - even for a short period.
For example, if you are caught up in a demonstration and the police cordon you off for an unreasonable amount of time, this might be a breach of your right to liberty.
Importantly, the Human Rights Act provides that if you are arrested, you have the right to:
- be told in a language you understand why you have been arrested and what charges you face
- be taken to court promptly
- bail (temporary release while the court process continues) subject to certain conditions
- have a trial within a reasonable time
- go to court to challenge your detention if you think it is unlawful
- compensation if you have been unlawfully detained.
- Right to a fair trial
You have the right to a fair and public hearing if:
- you are charged with a criminal offence and have to go to court
- a public authority is making a decision that has a decisive impact upon your civil rights or obligations.
Civil rights and obligations include rights and obligations that are recognised in different areas of UK law, including property law, planning law, family law, contract law and employment law.
It is a good idea to get further advice if you think the right to a fair and public hearing might apply to your case.
- No punishment without law
You cannot be charged with a criminal offence for an action that was not a crime when you committed it.
This means that public authorities have to make sure that laws explain clearly what counts as a criminal offence, so that you know when you are breaking the law.
It is also against the law for the courts to give you a greater sentence than was available at the time you committed an offence.
- Respect for your private and family life, home and correspondence
Your private life
The right to a private life means that you have the right to carry on your life privately, without government interference, as long as you also respect the rights of other people.
The courts have interpreted the concept of ‘private life’ in a very broad way. It covers things like your right to choose your sexual identity, your lifestyle, and the way you look and dress.
It also includes your right to control who sees and touches your body. For example, this means that public authorities cannot do things like leave you undressed in a busy ward, or take a blood sample without your permission.
The concept of private life also covers your right to develop your personality and to develop friendships and other relationships. This includes a right to participate in essential economic, social, cultural and recreational activities of the community.
In some circumstances, public authorities may need to take steps to support you to realise your right to a private life, including your ability to participate in society.
The right to private life means that the media and others can be prevented from interfering in your life.
It also means that personal information about you (including official records, photographs, letters, diaries and medical records), should be kept securely and not shared without your permission, except in certain circumstances.
Family life
You have the right to enjoy your family relationships without interference from the government. This includes the right to live with your family and, where this is not possible, the right to regular contact.
‘Family life’ can include the relationship between an unmarried couple, an adopted child and the adoptive parent, and a foster parent and fostered child.
- Freedom of thought, belief and religion
The Human Rights Act protects your right to have your own thoughts, beliefs and religion. This includes the right to change your religion or beliefs at any time.
You also have the right to put your thoughts and beliefs into action. For example, public authorities cannot stop you practising your religion, publicly or privately, without very good reason, as outlined in the restrictions.
Importantly, this right protects a wide range of religious beliefs and other beliefs including veganism, pacifism, agnosticism and atheism.
- Freedom of expression
You have the right to hold your own opinions and to express them freely without government interference.
This includes the right to express your views aloud or through:
- published articles, books or leaflets
- television or radio broadcasting
- works of art
- communication on the internet.
- Freedom of assembly and association
You have the right to protest by holding meetings and demonstrations with other people. But you must act peacefully and without violence or threat of violence.
You also have the right to form and be part of a trade union, a political party or another association or voluntary group.
Nobody has the right to force you to join a protest, trade union, political party or another association.
- Right to marry and start a family
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2002 that this right extends to transsexual people who are now able to marry or enter civil partnerships in their acquired gender because of the Gender Recognition Act (2004).
The Civil Partnership Act 2004 means that gay men and lesbian women in the UK are now able to register civil partnerships. Couples who register a civil partnership have the same rights as heterosexual married couples in areas like tax, social security, inheritance and workplace benefits.
- Protection from discrimination in respect of these rights and freedoms
Discrimination occurs when you are treated less favourably than another person in a similar situation and this treatment cannot be objectively and reasonably justified.
It is important to understand that the Human Rights Act does not protect you from discrimination in all areas of your life. Instead it protects you from discrimination in the enjoyment of those human rights protected by the European Convention of Human Rights. This reflects the core idea that all of us, no matter who we are, enjoy the same human rights and should have equal access to them.
There are other laws that protect you from discrimination more generally.
The protection against discrimination in the Human Rights Act is not free-standing. In other words, in order to rely on this right, you need to show that your ability to enjoy one or more of the other rights in the Human Rights Act has been affected by the discriminatory treatment. However, you do not need to prove that this other human right has actually been breached.
The Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination on a wide range of grounds including ‘sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status’.
The case law relating to this right has shown that the term ‘other status’ includes, among other things, sexual orientation, illegitimacy, marital status, trade union membership, transsexualism and imprisonment. It can also be used to challenge discrimination on the basis of age or disability.
- Right to peaceful enjoyment of your property
You have the right to enjoy your property peacefully.
Property can include things like land, houses, shares, licences, leases, patents, money, a pension and certain types of welfare benefits.
A public authority cannot take away property or place restrictions on your use of your property without very good reason.
This right applies to companies as well as individuals.
- Right to education
Everybody has the right to an effective education.
Parents also have a right to ensure that their religious and philosophical beliefs are respected during the children’s education.
- Right to participate in free elections
The Human Rights Act requires the government to support your right to free expression by holding free elections at reasonable intervals.
The elections must enable you to vote in secret.
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