Human Rights

Yes, as far as I am concerned, that is an appropriate analysis of how we should approach the issue. Of course, balancing can be a matter of opinion, and it is a good thing that we have the framework of the Human Rights Act, not only to help us and in our own views, but to help the courts to try to get it right. Take a situation that is almost impossible to manage, such as a case in which the intelligence services ““know”” someone to be involved in a terrorist plot. Perhaps there is evidence in a form that the criminal courts would accept, but the price to pay would be the loss of an agent’s cover, and loss of the leverage to disrupt what might end up in multiple murder. Or perhaps the evidence is not in that form, but is of a kind that might convince an independent scrutineer of the terrorist legislation that it would be justifiable to use the evidence to detain somebody. Under the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, which was the Government’s first attempt to get the balance right in near-impossible situations of that kind, the evidence that was produced did satisfy the scrutineer, in each and every case. However, the House of Lords found the Government’s power to detain to be unlawful. They found it discriminatory, as it was an extended immigration detention power, and so only usable against a foreigner, although there were British terrorists, too, and they found that it was therefore disproportionate in its effects on the foreign community. The same rationale was used to detain people under control orders in the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005. Those put the balancing powers of the Human Rights Act to the test, but the Act is there to be used for balance. Sometimes the courts say that the Government have got the balance right, and sometimes they say that they have got it wrong. In those extreme situations, the Government are limited in what they can do, but they have the backing of the duty to protect the public to allow them to do what we hope is enough. The Act provides a workable, desirable, demonstrably ethical framework within which hugely difficult decisions can be taken as fairly and as transparently as they can ever be. Returning to more peaceful concerns, let me give an example of human rights at their best. In "Something for Everyone: the impact of the Human Rights Act and the need for a Human Rights Commission,”” a piece of research carried out by the British Institute of Human Rights a few years ago, Emily Holzhausen from Carers UK is quoted. She says, speaking of the time before the Act:"““Sometimes you have a situation where a disabled person doesn’t want any help, and wants the person who’s caring for them to do everything. The person who cares does round the clock care, incontinence, all those kinds of things. In terms of the balance of one individual against the other, if you discard the Human Rights Act, the law at present favours the disabled person’s rights over the carer’s rights. But the Human Rights Act actually addresses that. It is an enormously difficult and complex situation, and at some point there needs to be a compromise of rights. So that’s where the Human Rights Act is useful.””" With its concept of balancing rights, the Human Rights Act is an ideal tool to use. It does not negate the essential humanity of any participant in a situation, but it helps to ensure that one person’s rights and freedoms do not override another’s so completely that there is little left of the second person’s rights, or little respect for their dignity. That is how we want human rights to be used in public services—to frame thinking, and to guide judgments that result in fairness to all parties, so that the outcome is common sense. That might not be so readily achievable without a framework of rights for us to reason through. To make all those points clearer, last week the Lord Chancellor launched a campaign, ““Human Rights: Common Values, Common Sense””. It will take two forms. First, Ministers will make the point that human rights are our values and are common sense. Today’s debate is part of that, in case anyone had not guessed. Misapplication of our rights, so that they appear not to accord with our values and common sense, is a recipe for ensuring that faith in them declines, and ensuring that their value to the public is weakened. That will put those rights under threat, and where that has happened—I detailed some examples—the people involved are hard-pressed front-line officials who have tried to do a proper job. It is our Department’s job to make sure that people who have to apply, interpret and implement human rights law are fully equipped to do the job. We have partly done that, including by making available a toolkit to help people operate the legislation properly, but clearly we have not done enough. The second element of the campaign will be a concerted programme of reaching out to key services—to the police, local government, the health service and a multitude of others—to offer people as much help and support as we can when they face those difficult problems, and to offer them advice on how to come up with common-sense solutions based on human rights. My noble Friend Lord Falconer recently met the leaders of the Association of Chief Police Officers, and we are grateful for their early support. We intend to hold such meetings with many other, similar bodies. To move forward, we argue that although the Human Rights Act incorporated the European convention on human rights into UK law for the first time, those rights are deeply and profoundly British. They are there to protect the public, not to put people at risk. They are there to benefit the majority, not just minorities. Human rights are for the many, not just the few. As Lord Falconer characterised it, the campaign is about moving from nonsense to common sense—a short phrase but a big step, and a step that we are determined to take.