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22 July 2011 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7475 / Categories: Opinion , Human rights
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The state of human rights (2)

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What’s the Human Rights Act ever done for us, asks Roger Smith

What has the Human Rights Act ever done for us? Not much, according to critics such as Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips: “Under the camouflage of human rights, this is the way freedom dies.” Yet, just as the Monty Python insurgents had to admit that the Romans had done quite a lot of good, so we should admit the same of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998).

Prisoner voting

We should begin by acknowledging what HRA 1998 does not do. It does not change a word of the 60-year-old European Convention on Human Rights. For example, the troublesome Mr Hirst, who established that the UK general ban on prisoners’ voting was in breach of the Convention, won his first case (on delays of his parole hearing) at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) before HRA 1998 came into force. His second victory was again at the hands of the ECtHR. HRA 1998 played no part

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