If you’re reading some of the headlines about ‘opting out’ of human rights protections and are not sure what you think about them, it’s useful to know what human rights are and some of the kinds of cases and issues that the European Convention on Human Rights has helped with.

So human rights are effectively a rule book for Governments to set out how they can and cannot treat people. The rules aim to protect human dignity. So for example they protect people from being arbitrarily killed, arrested or having their privacy arbitrarily invaded.

There are different kinds of rights under ECHR, which is protected in UK Law through the Human Rights Act. Some rights, like the prohibition on torture and slavery are absolute, which means they can never be breached.

We hear a lot about the prohibition torture preventing the extradition of specific individuals as an example of why we should scrap the HRA. But in truth the obligation not to torture people is an absolute one under international law. So withdrawal wouldn’t change that.

Other rights, like the rights to privacy, protest & freedom of expression have built in discretion. So they are never carte blanche for people OR governments to do just what they want. Human rights laws set out specific rules about when Governments may legitimately interfere.

So the idea that human rights inherently allow people to get away with what they want is a fundamental misunderstanding of the legislation we *already* have.

Governments tend not to like rules which constrain their power and this Government is no exception. But it’s important that there are constraints, best expressed below by commentary from Lady Hale (former Supreme Court judge) https://twitter.com/mcateambradford/status/1304306418460262400

We hear a bit less about cases regarding torture where the UK is in fact already found to have breached the rules around this. E.g when a paraplegic disabled woman couldn’t get appropriate facilities in prison in the UK, the Court found that this was a breach of the prohibition.

She wouldn’t have been able to bring that challenge without the ECHR. Examples of other cases where the ECHR has been a fundamental part of accessing justice include:

When a man with learning disabilities was separated from his family by decisions of the local authority, this was found to be a breach of his liberty and his right to private and family life.

When a woman experiencing domestic violence needed legal aid to escape the marriage and couldn’t access it, this was a breach of her right to a fair trial.

When a man was prosecuted in court and couldn’t understand the charges against him because they weren’t in his language, that was a breach of his right to a fair trial.

When a disabled man and his family experienced hate crime repeatedly and the authorities did nothing, this was a breach of his rights.

When a man with learning disabilities who was a voluntary patient in hospital had no judicial oversight of his case, this was a breach of his right to liberty.

There are literally thousands of examples of how ECHR rights protect and promote a human rights culture and either prevent or provide redress for Governments overstepping their authority.

Most of the cases where rights are found to be breached involve Russia or Turkey. In fact the UK has a very low level findings against it. It’s really important to recognise the reality of that & reflect on where we might end up were the UK Government to proceed with proposals.