The Human Rights Act
Back to Topic
Click to Print
Useful Websites
Glossary Term Selection
This article is 4 years old.
Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.
What is the Human Rights Act?
The Human Rights Act is a UK law passed in 1998.
It lets you defend your rights in UK courts and compels public organisations – including the Government, police and local councils – to treat everyone equally, with fairness, dignity and respect.
Who can use the Human Rights Act?
The Human Rights Act may be used by every person resident in the UnitedKingdom regardless of whether or not they are a British citizen or a foreign national, a child or an adult, a prisoner or a member of the public.
It can even be used by companies or organisations (like Liberty).
What does the Human Rights Act actually do?
The human rights contained within this law are based on the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Act ‘gives further effect’ to rights and freedoms guaranteed under the European Convention. It means:
- Judges must read and give effect to other laws in a way which is compatible with Convention rights
- It is unlawful for a public authority to ...
Want to see the rest of this article?
Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?
- Useful related articles
- Video and multimedia references
- Statistical information and reference material
- Glossary of terms
- Key Facts and figures
- Related assignments
- Resource material and websites
