Describe the Legal and Human Rights That Protect Citizens in the Uk
The Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe was established in 1997. The aim of this independent institution is both to promote the concept of human rights and to ensure the effective respect and full enjoyment of these rights in Council of Europe member States. The Commissioner is elected by the Parliamentary Assembly for a non-renewable term of six years. The Commissioner is an extrajudicial institution whose work must be seen as complementary to other Council of Europe institutions engaged in the promotion of human rights. The Commissioner shall exercise his functions independently and impartially, respecting the competence of the various supervisory bodies established by the European Convention on Human Rights or other Council of Europe human rights instruments. All human rights instruments contain guarantees of non-discrimination and equality, be they UN, Council of Europe, EU or OSCE standards. At the United Nations level, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination entered into force in 1969 and is overseen by a group of experts, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Committee receives and considers reports from States on compliance with the Treaty, establishes an early warning procedure to avoid situations of intolerance that may escalate into conflicts and serious violations of the Convention, and a procedure for receiving individual complaints if authorized by the State concerned. The European Union`s Racial Directive, in turn, applies to the employment and provision of goods and services by the state and private actors. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is a mechanism of the Council of Europe. Founded in 1993, ECRI`s mission is to combat racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance at the level of Europe as a whole and from the point of view of the protection of human rights. ECRI`s activities shall include all necessary measures to combat violence, discrimination and harm to which persons or groups of persons are subjected, in particular on grounds of their race, colour, language, religion, nationality and national or ethnic origin. EcRI members are appointed by their governments on the basis of their in-depth knowledge of the fight against intolerance.
They are appointed in their personal capacity and act as independent members. ECRI`s main programme of activities includes: In January 2014, the United Kingdom became the first country in its history[410] to be investigated under the UNITED Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for “systematic and serious violations” of the human rights of persons with disabilities, mainly in response to cuts made by the Department for Work and Pensions and Social Protection since 2011. [411], which disproportionately affect persons with disabilities,[412][413] as well as labour cost programs and the “bedroom tax.” [414] The final report was released on October 3, 2017. [415] Article 6 of the Convention requires a fair trial with a presumption of innocence and legal aid where required by the judiciary in accordance with the principles of natural justice. Section 7 prohibits offences that apply retroactively to acts committed before something has been criminalized. This follows the law since the Magna Carta according to which everyone has the right to be “brought to justice by his peers or the law of the land”. Several principles also combine to guarantee an individual a certain level of protection by law. [143] [144] These are often referred to as the rules of natural justice and include the principles nemo iudex in causa sua and audi alteram partem.
[145] A fair trial presupposes that each party has the opportunity to submit its own case to an impartial tribunal. [146] Courts usually have to sit in public and decisions can be challenged on the basis of real or overt bias. [147] Although judges are required by the common law to justify their decisions, there is no such rule for out-of-court decision-makers. [148] First, section 92 of the Police Act 1997 prohibits “interference with property or wireless telegraphy” without the permission of a chief of police or others. [165] Such interception devices may only be used “for the prevention or detection of serious crimes” that could result in more than 3 years in prison. The consent of a justice commissioner is also required when an apartment, room or office is wiretapped, and if the police are rejected, they may contact the investigative commissioner. [166] In addition, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which generally also permits surveillance by police, intelligence agencies, HMRC and counsel to obtain private (“directed”) information, or surveillance of an apartment or vehicle (“intrusive”) where this is for purposes of national security, prevention of serious crime or protection of the uk`s economic well-being. Only “intrusive” surveillance requires the approval of a justice commissioner. [167] This often led to abuse, for example in one case where a family was monitored to see if they lived in a catchment area of an overcrowded school,[168] and in another case, an intelligence officer who infiltrated a protest group and fathered a child after impersonating a dead child. [169] In a democratic society, respect for and protection of the human rights of all is an exercise in balance. For example, the right to freedom of expression of a person who incites racial hatred may be restricted to protect the right of others not to be abused or harassed because of their race.
Chaired by Maxwell Fyfe and the former French resistance fighter Pierre-Henri Teitgen, the Legal Affairs Committee of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe proposed to the Committee of Ministers of the Council to draw up a convention which would take up the rights proclaimed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948 and ensure the effective exercise of these rights. and the establishment of a European Court of Justice and a Commission on Human Rights. The committee agreed, and the text of what the European Convention on Human Rights would become was mainly written by Sir Oscar Dowson, retired senior legal adviser to the Home Office. [20] A number of instruments have also developed more robust procedures to allow for intrusive continuous visits to not only respond to, but also prevent, human rights violations. Most human rights instruments require States to submit regular reports. These are established by States in accordance with the instructions of the supervisory body. The purpose of these reports and subsequent review with the relevant monitoring body is to openly exchange the challenges of efforts to realize the rights concerned. The reports are discussed publicly as part of the so-called “state dialogue”. State reports, as well as all NGO “shadow reports”, are examined on the basis of their own sources and analyses that deal with state files.
Following the dialogue between the representatives of the State and the independent experts of the supervisory body, that body formulates its observations on the State`s compliance with the standards maintained in the binding act in question. These observations relate to both the positive and critical aspects of the State`s balance sheet. The ICCPR, the ICESCR and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) are examples of instruments requiring such regular reporting. In addition to this procedure of dialogue with the State, monitoring bodies may also be allowed to carry out “in situ” or field visits to directly monitor the human rights situation. Most of these visits require the express authorization of the State on a case-by-case basis. However, efforts are being made to facilitate open standing invitations, for example when States issue standing public invitations for visits by United Nations special mandate holders. The law sets out your human rights in a series of “articles”. Each section deals with a different law. These all come from the ECHR and are commonly referred to as “the rights of the Convention”: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the most important of all human rights instruments. The Convention on Enforced Disappearances deals with a phenomenon that is a global problem. The treaty prohibits “arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty” (Article 2), whether by agents of the State or by others acting with the consent of States, and does not accept any extraordinary circumstances for this refusal to recognize deprivation of liberty and concealment of the fate and whereabouts of the victims. Their aim is to put an end to this cynical ruse and to try to commit and get away with serious human rights violations.
The law “gives an additional effect” to the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the European Convention. This means that Part 4 did not create new prison powers – according to the Immigration Act of 1971, the Minister of the Interior has the power to detain an alien until he or she is deported. Instead, Part 4 removed a restriction on detention powers imposed by the requirements of Article 5(1)(f) of the European Convention on Human Rights (which provided, inter alia, that a person could only be detained for a short period of time before being deported). This was achieved by the British government which departed from the ECHR because the threat to the UK constituted a “public emergency threatening the life of the nation” within the meaning of Article 15. [Citation needed] In contrast, a non-binding instrument is basically only a declaration or political agreement of States that all attempts are made to fulfil a set of rights, but without any legal obligation to do so. In practice, this usually means that there are no formal (or legal) implementation mechanisms, although there may be strong political commitments to have them.
