15 May 2008
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Forfeit the human rights act for time serving criminals."
Details of Petition:
"Any convicted criminal, murderer, mugger,rapist,paedophile or terrorist should automatically forfeit any right to the Human Rights Act, as this is now open to far to much abuse and the victim has been denied all rights and protection."
Read the Government’s response
The Human Rights Act 1998 secures a fair balance between the general interests of society and the protection of the fundamental rights of each individual. Everyone has the benefit of the rights and freedoms protected by the Human Rights Act
Only a few of the rights protected by the Human Rights Act are absolute. They include protection against torture, slavery and retrospective criminal penalties. The Government believes that these rights should be absolute in recognition that such treatment can never be justified in a civilised, democratic society, even where the person seeking to rely on their human rights has committed a crime.
The majority of the Convention rights are, however, limited or qualified. Examples of these rights include: the right to respect for private and family life; and the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Limited and qualified Convention rights can be restricted. The types of reasons the state can give for interfering with the individual’s rights include: the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country; for the prevention of disorder or crime; for the protection of health or morals; or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. The more serious the threat to the general public interest, the more stringent the measures that can be justified.
The application of the Human Rights Act 1998 and therefore, the protection that it affords is not limited to certain members of society. The Human Rights Act secures a fair balance between the general interest of society and the protection of the fundamental rights of each individual. Everyone has the benefit of the rights and freedoms protected by the Human Rights Act, including prisoners and criminals. As the Government believes that everyone’s human rights, regardless of one’s citizenship and nationality, deserve to be protected and recognised in a civilised and democratic society.
Criminals however, do not always enjoy all the freedoms contained in the Human Rights Act 1998. Indeed the Act specifically stipulates that people convicted of crimes can be deprived of their liberty and should not be released from prison early if they present a serious danger to others.
The former Department for Constitutional Affairs (now Ministry of Justice) recently conducted a review on the implementation of the Human Rights Act. This was published in July 2006 and is available on the Ministry of Justice website.
The review found that the Human Rights Act has not seriously impeded the achievement of the Government’s objectives on crime, terrorism or immigration, and has not led to the public being exposed to additional or unnecessary risks. The Department has been ensuring the provision of better and more consistent guidance and training with public authorities to prevent an imbalance whereby too much attention is paid to individual rights at the expense of the wider community. The Government is also aware of the many myths and misconceptions which have grown up around human rights. A mechanism has been set up by the Department to ensure that whenever these misconceptions arise that they are debunked