The European Convention on Human Rights Act 1998

Human Rights Act 1998 – is an Act that gives legal effect in the UK to certain fundamental rights and freedoms contained in

Human Rights Act 1998 - The Human Rights Act means that residents of the United Kingdom will now be able to seek help from the courts if they believe that their human rights have been infringed.

Human rights act 1998 – specifies and enforces the rights of individuals and if these

Alternatively some argue that the executive has too much power which threatens individual rights. Therefore some suggest that a codified constitution would help to safeguard citizen’s rights because at the moment Britain has adopted the European Convention on Human Rights by passing the Human Rights Act 1998, which is considered weak as it could be overridden by Parliament due to Parliamentary sovereignty. Furthermore the European Convention on Human rights is part of UK law however its terms are not determined in the UK, whereas a codified constitution would include a statement of rights in the UK which would be controlled domestically.

This exclusion leaves the obligations of Public Authorities on the shoulders of; Public Officials, working in an administrative capacity; any entity with public function; The Victorian police; local government; ministers; and members of a parliamentary committee when working in an administrative capacity. This means that when members are authoring legislation, or when the judiciary is scrutinising legislation, the actors involved are not obliged to act in a compatible way with the charter. This makes enforcing legislation to be compatible with human rights nearly impossible, as there is no responsibility for the authors of that legislation to abide by the charter.

The Equality Act also provides rights for people not to be directly discriminated against or harassed because they have

The Human Rights Act covers all human rights and ensures that all individuals have rights on their side and can take legal action against any organisation that disrespects these. Meaning that if a care giver does not respect the needs of the resident they are caring for, their company can get sued due to their lack of care standards. The act states that everyone has the right to life, meaning that any life support mechanism cannot be withdrawn unless a person is beyond doubt clinically dead. It also says that every person has the right to protection from inhuman and degrading treatment, for example humiliation and inappropriate or rough care. It also prohibits discrimination, meaning that people must not be discriminated against due to their age/ethnicity/gender etc. meaning everyone must be treated equally with the same level of high standards of care no matter who they are.

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. The Human Rights Act protects individuals from torture (mental, physical or both), inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment and deportation or extradition (being sent to another country to face criminal charges) if there is a real risk that they will face

‘Article 14 Discrimination’ (bbc.co.uk). This tells us that no one has a right to discriminate against anyone for any reason including race, colour, religion, sex and many other reasons. ‘Protocol 1 article 1’ (bbc.co.uk). This is a right to your possessions everyone is entitled to their possessions. ‘Protocol 1 Article 2’ (bbc.co.uk) this is a right to an education, no one should be deprived of their education. ‘Protocol 1 Article 3’ (bbc.co.uk). This is the right to vote, everyone has the right to vote with the freedom of their expression.

The right to the publication of photographs of Brad Pitts young family on holiday would mean Evan Evans would have to consider both articles 8 and 10 of the European convention of human rights . since these articles are qualified rights it is essential for them be balanced in order to determine the intent in which they may be lawfully and proportionately restricted. Article 10, the freedom of expression would be

Human Rights Act

This Act is set up to set out the rights of people and allow them to take action against organisations if there rights have been affected.

The reform of the Human Rights Act can illustrate that the constitutional reform did not go far enough. In 1998, the Blair government announced that the citizens ' rights would be safeguarded and strengthened through incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law. However, this created a problem as the UK now has two sets of rights – those built up under Common Law and those in the Human Rights Act. These two sets of rights may conflict and, in addition, cases can be taken using these rights to both the UK Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights (which is the supreme court for the European Convention on Human Rights). The UK judiciary is divided on how to resolve this issue.

and the European Court of Human Rights has “entered a few judgments holding that schools have been illegally segregated.” Yet despite UNESCO’s attempts to aid Gypsy children, Fletcher believes that the European government is not trying hard enough, since “no European or national judicial or administrative organ has ordered the cessation of segregation in any school, nor have they addressed the principal means of evasion, white flight. Instead, they have left corrective action to uncoordinated, unconstrained municipalities” (Fletcher 919). Therefore, a small step for European governments to take is to implement anti-bullying programs in schools starting in the younger grades. Additionally, they should promote an overall atmosphere of acceptance in their countries, as a method of demonstrating that as a developed continent, they have the means of helping the Gypsies and these must be used. By promoting equality among the population, less bullying will be tolerated and Gypsy children will be more comfortable going to school and becoming healthy citizens. Moreover, adult Gypsy citizens who seek an education to gain qualifications for getting a job, should also be granted access to education. With a more educated population, Gypsies will be able to contribute to their nation’s economy and break free from a life of plagued by poverty, unemployment, and crime.

It is important to set the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights in context by examining the development of rights within the European Union. The embryo organisation that commenced the EU (The Coal and Steel Community 1951) was introduced in the wake of World War II to rebuild Europe by economically tying previously warring nations together. The consensus amongst the "heavy weights" of the EU was, if member states were economically invested in each other to ensure financial stability within their own state, future conflicts would be avoided. The EU had taken the role of a purely economic organisation which explains why it was not focused on social issues such as human rights, leaving such matters to individual member states to determine. Then came the political advancement of the 1990s, as evidenced by Weiler; ‘[The Maastricht Treaty] appropriates the deepest symbols of statehood: European citizenship, defence and foreign policy’. Naturally, the issue of human rights became prominent within the EU, and after much debate and a Convention the Charter was passed and given legally binding status under the Lisbon Treaty of 2009. The Charter has proved to be a controversial issue within European politics, with doubts being voiced about the functionality of the European Union’s own “Bill of Rights”. To effectively assess the question at hand, this essay will evaluate the extent to which the Charter is a necessary and desirable development, before reaching an overall