The Human Rights Act 1998 25private nursing homes and private security firms will all be regarded as public authorities
for the purposes of the HRA 1998. If a public authority breaches a Convention right a victim
of the breach may bring legal proceedings against it for breach of a new public tort.
The rights conferred by the Convention are as follows.
n The right to life (Art. 2).
n The right not to be subjected to torture or inhumane or degrading punishment (Art. 3).
n The right not to be held in slavery or servitude or required to perform forced or compul-
sory labour (Art. 4).
n The right to liberty and security of the person (Art. 5).
n The right to a fair trial (Art. 6).
n The right not to be convicted of a criminal offence which was created after the act was
committed (Art. 7).
n The right to respect for a person’s private and family life, home and correspondence
(Art. 8).
n The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Art. 9).
n The right to freedom of expression (Art. 10).
n The right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others
(Art. 11).
n The right to marry and form a family (Art. 12).
n The right to have the Convention applied without discrimination (Art. 14).
Article 15 allows departure from the Convention in time of war. Articles 1 and 13 have not
been incorporated into UK law.
The United Kingdom has also agreed to be bound by protocols, which give the right to
peaceful enjoyment of possessions, and outlaw the death penalty.
Forty-seven States have signed the Convention on Human Rights and there are 47 judges
in the plenary Court of Human Rights, one judge representing each State. This plenary
court almost always delegates the hearing of complaints to Chambers. Each Chamber has
seven judges plus an additional judge who represents the State against which the complaint
is being made. The Chambers themselves set up Committees of three judges. These
Committees sift through complaints and dismiss as soon as possible those which are com-
pletely unfounded. The European Court of Human Rights is very much a court of last
resort. Article 35 of the Convention requires an applicant to the court to prove four things:
n that the complaint involves a breach of the Convention by a country which has ratified it;
n that the breach happened within that country’s jurisdiction;
n that all domestic remedies have been exhausted; and
n the application has been made within six months of these being exhausted.
However, if domestic remedies are unsatisfactory, then the court can deem them to have
been exhausted. The court cannot enforce its judgments but can order ‘just satisfaction’
amounting to the payment of compensation and costs. The court does not use a system of
precedent. The Human Rights Act 1998 has already had a significant impact on many areas
of UK law. Both government ministers and senior judges who supported the passing of the
HRA 1998 have recently said that it is being applied too widely, both by judges and those
in official positions.