In this report the Committee describes and explains the full range of its work over the course of the 2001-2005 Parliament. The Committee distils from its experience a number of suggestions for consideration by its successor committee and recommendations addressed to the Government, in order to enhance the integration of human rights considerations into the overall policy and legislative process. Chapter 2 explains the background to the Committee's establishment. Chapter 3 covers the legislative scrutiny performed by the Committee. The monitoring of the implementation of the Human Rights Act is the subject of chapter 4, while chapter 5 covers work in relation to institutional support for human rights within the UK. The inquiries into the international treaties to which the UK is a party are dealt with in chapter 6, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The final chapter describes the work undertaken on monitoring action taken by the Government in response to incompatibilities with Convention rights, arising from Strasbourg judgments and declarations of incompatibility by UK courts.
This publication contains the detailed response of the Government to all of the recommendations contained in the report of the Joint Committee. It states that the reduction of deaths in custody is a key priority and that the Government will do everything possible to improve safety. It agrees that its strategies should not operate in isolation and must be embedded in the culture of institutions at every level and also embrace all agencies that have contact with detainees. The Government will further consider the recommendation that there should be a cross-departmental expert task force and will give a further response in six months.
Drawing special attention to: European Union Bill; Management of Offenders and Sentencing Bill; Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Bill; Private Members' Bills.
On cover: Drawing special attention to: Children Bill; Finance Bill; Gender Recognition Bill; Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill; Promotion of Volunteering Bill
The Committee's report responds to and evaluates the Government's review of the UK's international human rights obligations (published by the Department for Constitutional Affairs in July 2004 and available from their website at http: //www dca.gov.uk/hract/ngo/review_2002.htm). The report seeks to bring to the attention of Parliament and the wider public information about the full range of human rights instruments which the Government has decided should continue to bind the UK, as well as those human rights treaties which it has decided the UK should not be bound or in respect of which it maintains reservations or interpretative declarations. Findings include support for the Government's decision to allow for rights of individual petition under the UN Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and concern over the absence of such rights under other UN treaties. The report also notes concerns over reservations made to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in relation to children in armed conflict, immigration control, and detention of children in separate accommodation facilities
On cover: Drawing special attention to : Age Related Payments Act, Asylum & Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill, Employment Relations Bill, draft School Transport Bill, draft Criminal Defence Service Bill
On cover: Drawing special attention to: Employment Relations Bill; Housing Bill; Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill; Trespassers on Land (Liability for Damage and Eviction) Bill
This report raises concerns about the compatibility of provisions of the Identity Cards Bill with the right to respect for private life under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the right to non-discrimination in the protection of the Convention rights under article 14. In particular it questions: the extent of the personal information which will be included in the "registrable facts" held on the Register, and whether all of the information serves a legitimate aim; the potential for personal information to be recorded on the Register without the knowledge or consent of the individual concerned; the potential for the system of "designated documents" to render registration and ID cards effectively compulsory for certain groups of people who hold those documents; the potential for a "phased in" system of compulsory registration and ID cards to lead to interference with article 8 rights which is not justified by any legitimate aim; under a compulsory scheme the extent of personal information which may be disclosed from the Register to a service provider as a condition of access to public services. The Committee's letter to the Home Secretary requesting clarification or further information on these matters is appended to the report.
The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) sets standards for race equality and non-discrimination as part of the UN system for human rights protection. In August 2003, the UN supervisory committee on the Convention issued its findings on the UK's compliance, including measures which should be taken to enhance race equality in the UK and areas of concern for compliance with the Convention. The Committee's report considers the UK's implementation of CERD in light of the UN's report. Topics discussed include: the legal status of CERD in UK law and the legislative framework for protection of non-discrimination; the use of CERD standards in policy development and strategies to ensure effective implementation of rights; policing and the criminal justice system; the permissibility of discrimination in relation to immigration control; concerns regarding racial hate speech, and discrimination against gypsies and traveller communities; the reporting process and possible measures to improve access and effectiveness.
Human rights Policy : Oral evidence: 8 December 2003, Rt Hon Lord Falconer of Thoroton, QC, Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor
The Human Rights Act makes it unlawful for public authorities to act in breach of the fundamental rights and freedoms set out in the European Convention on Human Rights, and it allows individuals to seek vindication and redress in UK courts. The Committee's report considers a possible flaw in the design of the Human Rights Act, with regards to the meaning of "public authority", which means that many private and voluntary sector providers of public services are considered outside the scope of the Act, with no obligation to comply with the rights and freedoms it incorporated into domestic law. The Committee concludes that there is a fundamental problem, not with the design of the law, but with its inconsistent and restrictive application by the courts. The Committee supports the judgement of the House of Lords in the only case it has so far determined on this matter, in which it balanced a narrow category of "pure" public authority against a generously wide and flexible category of "functional" public authority. The Committee concludes that lower courts should be adopting a clear "functional" approach to the interpretation of the Act.
Draws special attention to the following Bills: Education Bill; Liverpool City Council (Prohibition of Smoking in Places of Work) Bill; London Local Authorities (Prohibition of Smoking in Places of Work) Bill
The Joint Committee's report considers the human rights implications of Part 4 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, which required a UK derogation from the right to personal liberty under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) regarding exceptional powers to allow the indefinite detention without charge of suspected international terrorists who are not UK nationals and cannot be removed from the country. Conclusions drawn include: i) there are serious weaknesses in human rights protection under the detention provisions of Part 4 of the Act and a more satisfactory legal framework is urgently required which fully complies with the ECHR; ii) there is a significant risk that the powers under Part 4 violate the right to be free of discrimination under ECHR Article 14 because they have a particular impact on only one part of the resident community of the UK on grounds of nationality; and iii) the Committee continues to doubt whether the derogation is justified on grounds of national emergency, and is not persuaded that it is appropriate to renew Part 4 when there is no time limit specified.
The Naval Discipline Act 1957 (remedial) Order 2004 was laid to remedy an incompatibility between UK law and the Human Rights Act concerned with the independence and impartiality of naval courts martial. This report looks at the background to the Order and the Committee's deliberations in relation to it. They recommend that the Order be approved.
In this personal memoir, the author shares engaging stories about being a latch-key kid growing up in the American Midwest during the 1930s and `40s. Her father, `shellshocked' in World War I, had a dramatic impact on the family. Her mother, as a single parent, raised her through the hardships of the Great Depression. Janet grows from a lonely child to a twenty-year old mother, and blossoms into a complex woman who has uncommon experiences with family, friends, work, travel, health, and her sixty-five years of marriage to one man.
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