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Join the discussion and blog in our new symposium on human rights and the Human Rights Act in the lead up to the next generalelection - should it stay or should it go?

One year from now the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) could very well be dust binned to Labour’s legacy years under a Cameron government. But has it’s time finally come – and more crucially –will we really miss it?

Like the unwanted love child from Labour’s rise to power, the HRA was born out of a period of sweeping modernisation and reforms in the UK that have now, clearly, outgrown paternal limitations that were pressed into it’s parliamentary sovereignty on always having the final say. Was the HRA ever really meant to encroach on policy and practice to the extent that it has, limiting rights and freedoms of government and increasing individuals’ protections? Nice in theory anyway.

Keir Starmer brought the HRA back into the public spotlight recently in his Public Prosecution Service annual lecture on “the role of the prosecutor in a modern democracy”. Criticism of Starmer’s political jousting has ranged from tittering waffle to interesting points on interference in political processes and in his duty to uphold the act, with some letters musings on how the Act promotes special interest groups to round it off.

Another option has been todump Strasbourg and keep the Act. But asFrancesca Klug points out that this might lead to a break too far:

The UK would be the first democratic country in history to repeal a human rights treaty from domestic law

Role of the Media
What about role of the mass media in generating perceptions of the effectiveness of the HRA– are they debating valid arguments on the contents of the Act for them to consider? Really? Trivialising the purpose of human rights protections can tend to distort the bar that the Act has set in terms of social and cultural standards to emulate and maintained. Why, after all, has human rights legislation received such provenance in counties with obvious histories in dividing and conquering?

Does the HRA, then, mainly function as a lightening rod for the demons and undesirables in our society – such as crooks, paedophiles, murderers and alien space invaders? Has it also finally come to a case of the Labouring captains going down in a ship of their own making?

Politicking the Act
Polarising opposition to government failures over the last ten years is almost too easy when half truths and populist points work their way into the public domain on a daily basis, for example. While the HRA is not an anti-conservative document, the Tories must fend off their own demons in the trade-off of votes for gimmicks and bartering ‘freedom for headlines’ in the most important piece of legislation for universal protection standards on this island.

A final thought would lead us to ask if the government has done sufficient work in promoting a culture of human rights since the Act came into force. Could it ever be able to withstand populist rhetoric built on simple zero sum dichotomies that inflict the discourse daily? Designed as an important sling for protecting individuals against the state Goliath, is it no wonder that a culture of positive cases for human rights are so cumbersome to locate when subdued by negative blows from the Conservatives, Labour and political media classes?

Seeking to house the debates and explore the arguments, we invite you to blog and comment on human rights and the HRA in the lead up to the next general election.

Please include all web and document links by in blog submissions (or alternatively email them to . Cross-posts from your blog or other sites may be included here too - please send details to Exchange Editor