General concept of Human Rights - Essay Example

Both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 have as subjects human rights and fundamental freedoms. Human rights and freedoms are necessary and basic components of man's existence. It is not therefore an overstatement if one says that if he cannot have liberty, he will better have death. Life without freedom or life without human rights is not life at all. History is full of tales against suppression of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Hence, we have the story of the Israelites fleeing in exodus in the belief of savoring freedom in the end.

We have the Tiananmen Square. We have the demolition of the Apartheid. Slavery has become a thing of the past. Servitude must always be voluntary. The concept of forced labor had long vanished in all civilized countries. Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights very correctly stresses the affirmation that all human beings are born free. All the people of the world are equal in dignity and rights. Endowed with reason and conscience, men should act towards one and the other as brothers.

Before putting forward the arguments and discussions which respectively pertain to the two commandment pillars of human rights and fundamental freedoms, it is logical, necessary and highly advisable that the underlying premises are first laid down. This methodology will lead all and sundry to have a better understanding of the basic fundamentals that gave rise to these historical enactments. In 1950,1 through the initiatives of the Council of Europe, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was adopted with the end in view of giving protection to human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe.

It is also called the European Convention on Human Rights, referred to here as the Convention for brevity. The United Kingdom is a member state. As a necessary element and complement in order to establish the enforcement mechanisms of the Convention, the European Commission on Human Rights was created in 1954. This evolved into the European Court of Human Rights beginning 1959. The latter was put in place as a permanent tribunal on November 1, 1998 with full-fledged judges. It has its building and offices at Strasbourg, France.

2 The Convention is effective in all states or territories which are members thereof or signatories thereto. The Convention therefore has a multi-national coverage or jurisdiction over those sovereignties and the individual citizens or residents thereof as far as concerning humanrights and fundamental freedoms. States who are members of or signatories to the Convention have to go in line with the policies that it develops and promotes. In the case of the protocol on the death penalty, for instance, each member or signatory state has to abolish the capital punishment.

3 Upon the other hand, the Human Rights Act 1998 is a law passed by the United Kingdom (UK) legislature in 1998. What is it about The prefatory of this legislation says, among others, that it is an act to give further effect to the rights and freedoms set forth in the Convention. Is not the Human Rights Act 1998 (or Act for short) a duplication of the Convention or an encroachment upon the latter Definitely, it