Human Rights Act

The Human Rights Act can be seen as far-reaching and some would argue controversial in the UK's history of rights. At the same time, it can be described as a somewhat cautious document that provides the starting point for a wider application of the law to rights. In many ways, the freedoms and protections contained within the Human Rights Act were not new to people living in the UK. The output of the UK law influenced most of the clauses in the European Convention on Human Rights. The Convention itself was devised following the end of the Second World War by the Council of Europe. UK lawyers played a significant role in the drafting of the convention and the UK was among the first governments to ratify the convention in 1951. Rights are sometimes described as being of a positive or negative nature. That's to say some can be expressed as a right to, another's is freedom from. The 1998 Act puts into place 15 specific rights and freedoms which include rights to liberty and security, a free trial, free expression, free elections, and the right to marry and found a family. There are also freedoms from torture, from slavery or forced labor, and from discrimination on grounds such as race, sex, religion, political opinion or social origin. The Human Rights Act has been described as the start of a process. The act itself does not expand on the provisions made by the European Convention, which some would consider as following a baseline or minimum standards for human rights.