How does article two and nine of the Human Rights Act and its legality effect your everyday life? Asks Ciaran Dolby.

How does article two and nine of the Human Rights Act and its legality effect your everyday life? Asks Ciaran Dolby.

Laws have a daily impact on our lives, whether they relate to social services, education, housing, nutrition, food safety, consumer rights or the environment. Whether you’re a single mother listed for new council housing in your county, or a big-time entrepreneur who just turned over a million. The law will affect you. Legislation is law that is created by the legislature, the most important pieces of legislation are Acts of Parliament, which we will discuss further through the Human Rights Act. The principal legislature is the UK Parliament, which is based in London. This is the only body that has the power to pass laws that apply in all four countries.

But what laws impact your everyday life. Well to start, all humans have human rights in the UK; codified in the Human Rights Act of 1998 and enlisted in our unentrenched constitution. The Human Right Act consists of 16 articles that legally are bound to any person, and we will discuss some of the most significant ones that effect your everyday life. Due to this act, you may walk out of your house with liberty and right to life or be able to scream your beliefs without being held accountable, asides incidents of hate crime.

Article two, or the right to life, means that nobody, including the Government, can try to end your life. It means the Government should take appropriate measures to safeguard life, making laws to protect you and, in some circumstances, by taking steps to protect you if your life is at risk. This article has few exceptions, stop them carrying out unlawful violence, make a lawful arrest, stop them escaping lawful detainment, and stop a riot or uprising. However, this Article has been seen by some as hollow with no exception for special circumstances, for example the Pretty v United Kingdom case in 2002. In this case a woman suffering from an incurable degenerative disease wanted to control when and how she died. To avoid an undignified death, she wanted her husband to help her take her life. However, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the right to life does not create a right to choose death rather than life. It meant there was no right to die at the hands of a third person or with the help of a public authority. The 1961 Suicide Act making it illegal to ‘aid, abet, counsel or procure the suicide of another’ would have given the husband a sentence of up to 14 years.

Article nine or your freedom of thought, belief and religion gives you the right to put your thoughts and beliefs into action. This could include your right to wear religious clothing, the right to talk about your beliefs or take part in religious worship. Public authorities cannot stop you practicing your religion, without very good reasons out of the following: public safety, public order, health or morals, and the rights and freedoms of other people. The European Court of Human Rights has found that a person cannot be forced to demonstrate views or behavior associated with a particular religion. A case in 2005 helps us understand our right to freedom of thought further. Firstly, the right to have your own belief extends to teaching practices, so when the R.Williamson (and others) v Secretary of State for Education and Employment and others, saw a group of parents and teachers try, unsuccessfully, to use Article 9 to overturn the ban on corporal punishment of children in schools, converse to popular belief. They believed that part of the duty of education was for teachers to assume the parental role and administer physical punishment to misbehaving children. The House of Lords rejected the case because the parents’ rights under Article 9 were restricted by the need to protect children from the harmful effects that corporal punishment might cause. Instead, anyone who did administer corporal punishment would be subject to the ‘Offences against the Person Act 1861 deeming it as assault.

To conclude, your everyday life is always affected by the law. If you take the time to think about the law thoroughly you come to realise that a modern life would be impossible without law, especially from article two and nine of the Human Rights Act. Your right to life allows you to walk freely knowing the government cannot try and end your life, and have laws to protect you from harm, essentially the building blocks of a safe and democratic society. Your right to freedom of thought, belief and religion allows you to say anything you believe and worship whatever you wish to worship, knowing that due to the Humans Rights Act, your life is safe and protected by the law.