“Human rights are back…we’re not only going to protect human rights, we’re going to promote human rights.” These were the words of the Attorney General, the Rt Hon Lord Hermer KC, at our Labour Party Conference fringe event last month, co-hosted with Amnesty International UK ‘Change for good: tackling poverty and inequality using everyday rights’.
As the chief legal adviser to the UK Government, the Attorney General outlined that at the core of this idea was the concept of human dignity, and that this needs to be applied to our everyday rights such as food, health and social care.
He recognised that effective incorporation of these rights would be complex, but said he is “delighted to be part of a new government that wants to lean into complexity, that will take as given the fundamental principles that we are about promotion of human dignity.”
We agree that now is the time to progress incorporation of our everyday rights, and our Chair Jamie Burton KC set out why:
First, it is the right thing for a Labour Government to do. The last decade and a half have seen the creation of a new class, the ‘rights vulnerable’; those at the sharpest end of rights violations – it is morally right that everyone should be protected.
Second, incorporation of our everyday rights would give meaningful substance to the Labour Government’s constitutional reform agenda. There is a need to bind the country together behind a progressive ideal based on a coherent set of values.
Third, it is time to regain the narrative on human rights; trust in their core values and longstanding support of human rights.
Fourth, incorporating our everyday rights would be both practically feasible and in line with international norms. In 2018, sixty-five countries globally had enshrined economic, social and cultural rights in their constitutions, twelve in Europe.
Finally, as history shows, it is when Labour stands behind its principles and trusts its convictions that real tangible improvements materialise. Rights protections would act as an enduring legacy to safeguard progress for future generations.
Now is the time for practical, and progressive steps to be taken which will lay the foundations for a better society, one in which people are less vulnerable to violations of their fundamental human rights.
We look forward to working with the UK Government to make this a reality.
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