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Chapter 5: The UK government, the law and your role

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Fundamental rights and equality

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Fundamental Rights: What the UK Protects

In 1946, in a courtroom in Nuremberg, Germany, a British prosecutor stood up and listed, one by one, the crimes of the Nazi leaders on trial. Four years later, an international agreement that he had helped to draft was signed in Rome. Its purpose was to make sure such horrors never happened again.

His name was David Maxwell Fyfe. Born in Edinburgh, he was the UK's deputy chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, and he later chaired the Council of Europe's legal committee that drafted the agreement. That agreement is the European Convention on Human Rights, which today protects the basic rights of everyone in the UK. This chapter starts with the Convention, then looks at how UK law protects equality. Finally, it covers some acts that people elsewhere might call "private family matters", but which are crimes in the UK.

Old roots: from Magna Carta to the Bill of Rights

Respect for individual rights and basic freedoms has a long history in Britain, going back many hundreds of years. Three old documents stand out, and you met all of them in the history chapters:

1. 1215Magna Carta: even the king must obey the law
2. 1679The Habeas Corpus Act: nobody may be held prisoner unlawfully
3. 1689The Bill of Rights: where Parliament's rights end and the monarch's power begins
4. 1950The UK signs the European Convention on Human Rights
5. 1998The Human Rights Act brings the Convention into UK law (in force from 2000)

These rights didn't appear overnight. They grew bit by bit over several centuries.

The European Convention on Human Rights: drafted with British help

After the Second World War, the countries of Europe wanted to make sure such cruelty could never happen again. In 1949, ten western European countries signed a treaty in London that created the Council of Europe. One of its first big tasks was to write a convention to protect human rights.

Its full name is the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, but it is usually called the European Convention on Human Rights. British diplomats and lawyers played an important part in drafting it, and Maxwell Fyfe was one of them. In 1950, the UK was among the first countries to sign it.

The signing took place in Rome on 4 November 1950, but signing is only the first step: each country then has to "ratify" the treaty, formally approving it through its own procedures. The UK did so quickly, on 8 March 1951, under Clement Attlee's Labour government. The Convention came into force in September 1953, once enough countries had ratified it.

The Convention protects many rights. Here are seven of them:

The right to life

No torture

No slavery or forced labour

Liberty and security

A fair trial

Freedom of thought, conscience and religion

Freedom of expression (speech)

The Human Rights Act 1998: bringing the Convention home

Although the UK signed the Convention early, for a long time it was not part of the UK's own law. If people felt their rights had been broken, they often had to take their case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. That cost a lot of money and took a long time.

The Human Rights Act 1998 changed that by making the Convention part of UK law. Since then, the government, public bodies and the courts must all follow the principles of the Convention, and people can rely on these rights directly in UK courts.

When the government proposed the law in 1997, the paper explaining it was called Rights Brought Home: people would no longer need to travel all the way to Strasbourg. The Act was passed in 1998 but only came into force in October 2000; the time in between was used to train judges and public officials.

A common mix-up is to think the Convention stopped applying after Brexit. It didn't. The Convention belongs to the Council of Europe, which is a separate organisation from the European Union. The UK left the EU in 2020 but is still a member of the Council of Europe, so the Convention and the Human Rights Act still apply. The previous chapter compares the two organisations in its section on international bodies.

Equal opportunities: you can't be treated unfairly for who you are

At a job interview, a woman is asked, "When are you planning to have children?" A landlord hears someone's accent on the phone and says the room has already gone. In the UK, both of these could be unlawful discrimination.

UK law makes sure that, in every part of life and work, nobody is treated unfairly because of any of these:

If you face discrimination, you can get advice from Citizens Advice, or from these organisations:

Domestic violence: a crime, even behind closed doors

In the UK, violence at home is not a "private family matter". Violence in the home is a serious crime.

• Anyone who is violent towards their partner can be prosecuted, whether the violent person is a man or a woman, and whether the couple are married or living together.
• A man who forces a woman to have sex can be charged with rape, and that includes her husband.

If you are suffering domestic violence, the sooner you get help, the better. A solicitor (a type of lawyer) or Citizens Advice can explain your options. Some areas have safe places to stay called refuges or shelters.

There is also a free phone number: the National Domestic Violence Freephone Helpline, on 0808 2000 247. It is open day and night, and if you can't get through, its voicemail lets you leave a message; the helpline has a website too. Another place to look is the website of the charity Women's Aid. And in an emergency, call the police straight away. They can also help you find somewhere safe to stay.

Female genital mutilation (FGM): a crime in the UK

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is also known as "cutting" or "female circumcision". It is a long-standing tradition in some parts of the world, but it causes girls and women serious harm to body and mind that can last a lifetime.

FGM is against the law in the UK. Carrying out FGM is a criminal offence, and so is taking a girl or woman abroad for FGM.

Forced marriage: both people must want it

The UK's basic rule for marriage is simple: both people must agree to it fully and freely.

• An arranged marriage is one where the families suggest and organise the match, but both people agree to marry. This is acceptable in the UK.
• A forced marriage is one where one or both people have not agreed, or are not able to agree. Forcing someone to marry is a criminal offence.

Courts can issue Forced Marriage Protection Orders to protect people who are at risk of being forced into marriage, or who are already in a forced marriage. The person themselves, or someone acting for them, can apply.

Chapter summary

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