Author Archives: Alan Smith

Opinion: Human Rights Act – when rights clash

By Alan Smith | Mon 1st June 2015 - 11:07 am

 

As one of the many who have recently joined the Liberal Democrats, my attention has been drawn to the fight to make sure that the Human Rights Act is not scrapped by the Conservatives. In a recent email from Tom Brake MP, we were reminded of the following rights afforded to us by the Human Rights Act:

  • the right to life;
  • the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
  • the prohibition of slavery and forced labour;
  • the right to liberty and security of the person;
  • the right to a fair trial;
  • prohibition of punishment without law;
  • the right to respect for private and family life;
  • the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
  • the right to freedom of expression;
  • the right to freedom of assembly and association;
  • the right for men and women to marry and found a family;
  • the right to peaceful enjoyment of personal property;
  • the right to education;
  • the right to free elections;
  • and the prohibition of discrimination.

But what happens when there is friction between two or more of these rights?

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 51 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Chris Williams
    All well and good, but what is a fascist? What are their policies? And are they on the right, left or both? You need to be able to identify your enemy in order ...
  • Andrew Moore
    I'm with Jana on this one. Fascism is defined (Cambridge Dictionary) as: 'A political system based on a very powerful leader, state control of social and econ...
  • Steph
    Great article and a very important topic! To add an important point of clarity relating to Britain's treaty obligations to prevent genocide, it is important to ...
  • David Evans
    Jana, Spot on. Too often people on the illiberal left and even worse many people who chose to describe themselves as progressive adopt the word fascist to des...
  • Chloe
    Exactly Jason ; It needs to be called out on all sides. Numerous videos of Young Bob online being attacked by students who've little in the way of any coherent ...