General Article Human Rights Act myths

Topic Selected: Human Rights
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There has been very little public education about the rights and freedoms contained in the Human Rights Act and how it works. As a result, many myths and misunderstandings have sprung up about the HRA – including who it does and doesn’t protect and what values it contains.

Exploding these myths is a crucial part of our Common Values campaign. Here are some of the most common false accusations against the Act.

‘The Human Rights Act does nothing for ordinary people’

The Human Rights Act protects everyone’s human rights; young and old, rich and poor, yours and mine. Anybody’s privacy could be breached by the prying eyes of the state, anybody can be wrongly accused of a crime, and anybody could fall foul of careless and insensitive decision-making by public authorities. Hopefully this won’t happen to you but if it did, you might find you need to rely on the Human Rights Act to help you.

‘People now have a “human right” to anything’

The Human Rights Act doesn’t protect an endless ca...

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