1. Right to freedom of speech: violated by the Communications Act 2003 which makes it a criminal offence to post communications that are "grossly offensive, or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character". Notably used in such classics as the Twitter Joke trial, and the Hitler Dog Salute trial.
2. Right to silence: violated by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 which repealed the right to "plead the fifth" so to speak, to allow juries to take adverse inferences if the accused refuses to provide the police with details of their defence as soon as possible. Also violated by RIPA which allows a person to be imprisoned for years for refusing to disclose a password.
3. Right to freedom of assembly: violated by various laws passed in recent years adding more and more restrictions on protests. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 allows the police to shut down protests that cause a "nuisance", in the Government's own words: "The Act will allow police to place conditions on public processions, public assemblies and one-person protests where it is reasonably believed that the noise they generated may result it serious disruption to the activities of an organisation carried on in the vicinity or have a significant impact on people in the vicinity of the protest."
4. Right to privacy: violated by many internet laws, predominantly RIPA: "In April 2008, it became known that local government officials in Poole put three children and their parents under surveillance, at home and in their daily movements, to check whether they lived in a particular school catchment area". The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 went further and imposed mandatory logging of internet activity in the UK by ISPs.
5. Right to not be subjected to facial recognition: facial recognition is rife, the police are permitted to use facial recognition vans in public places.
6. Right to vote: violated by the Voter Identification Regulations 2022 which were created for the express purpose of disenfranchising voters (as admitted by Jacob Rees-Mogg that it might have backfired and caused a disenfranchisement of older voters instead of younger), especially given the almost non-existent level of in-person voter fraud, and the non-possession of photo ID by a much larger number of people.
7. Right to a fair trial. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 drastically cut funding and availability of legal aid.
8. Right to nationality: thanks to the Begum case, the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 substantially weakened the already quite weak protections for natural-born British citizens who are entitled to another nationality. The minister can withdraw the nationality of any dual national, without any due process or even notifying them about it.
Governments have also attempted to do several things which failed or are in the process of failing:
1. The Home Secretary wishes to leave the ECHR, and there have been repeated unsuccessful attempts to repeal and water-down the Human Rights Act.
2. Successive governments have attempted to restrict the availability of end-to-end encrypted communications apps such as WhatsApp, despite relying on WhatsApp to keep ministerial communications secret from the public, and refusing to submit WhatsApp messages to public inquiries.
3. Successive governments have attempted to institute mandatory age verification to access the internet, although they have been mostly foiled by the IETF's improvements to internet privacy post-Snowden (thanks guys).
You've got some good ones and some crazy ones there, probably more good than crazy. Certainly a lot I'm sympathetic to.
I'll just make one observation. Very few rights are absolute. Take the right to privacy in the HRA for example:
> There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
You really could drive a cart and horses through that.
I cherrypicked two to illustrate my point, but if you think there are especially strong examples here which you'd like me to address, do feel free and I'm happy to go into detail on any of them!
> 1. Right to freedom of speech: violated by the Communications Act 2003
Freedom of Expression is most obviously defined in the UK in the 1998 Human Rights Act, which goes on to specifically state that the right can "be subject to formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society".
The 1986 Public Order Act had already made it an offence to use “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviours that causes, or is likely to cause, another person harassment, alarm or distress”.
Oh, and the 2003 Communications Act was a fairly benign modernisation of the Malicious Communications Act of 1988, which includes this language: "[it is an offence to send a letter] which is, in whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature[…]"
It is a mistake to believe that your right to freedom of expression has meaningfully changed since 2003.
> 3. Right to freedom of assembly
Again, there are a wide range of longstanding limitations and conditions surrounding this right which are occasionally revised and refined to keep them current (and to avoid a situation where we govern using something akin to constitutional originalism, which is a clusterfuck). It is not possible to avoid refining laws in this manner, and it is not a right being taken away from you.
Specifically in this case, there are multiple provisions in the Public Order Act of 1986 (actually maybe a 1991 revision glancing at it now) to allow the police to forbid, restrict, and dissolve public processions and gatherings at their discretion, including for a failure to notify the police of the intent to gather. Police have long been able to use these as the basis to dissolve nuisance gatherings and protests which cause significant disruption or noise. Your right to peacefully gather and protest has never afforded you the right to cause a significant or sustained nuisance to others who also enjoy rights which the government must protect.
1. Right to freedom of speech: violated by the Communications Act 2003 which makes it a criminal offence to post communications that are "grossly offensive, or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character". Notably used in such classics as the Twitter Joke trial, and the Hitler Dog Salute trial.
2. Right to silence: violated by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 which repealed the right to "plead the fifth" so to speak, to allow juries to take adverse inferences if the accused refuses to provide the police with details of their defence as soon as possible. Also violated by RIPA which allows a person to be imprisoned for years for refusing to disclose a password.
3. Right to freedom of assembly: violated by various laws passed in recent years adding more and more restrictions on protests. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 allows the police to shut down protests that cause a "nuisance", in the Government's own words: "The Act will allow police to place conditions on public processions, public assemblies and one-person protests where it is reasonably believed that the noise they generated may result it serious disruption to the activities of an organisation carried on in the vicinity or have a significant impact on people in the vicinity of the protest."
4. Right to privacy: violated by many internet laws, predominantly RIPA: "In April 2008, it became known that local government officials in Poole put three children and their parents under surveillance, at home and in their daily movements, to check whether they lived in a particular school catchment area". The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 went further and imposed mandatory logging of internet activity in the UK by ISPs.
5. Right to not be subjected to facial recognition: facial recognition is rife, the police are permitted to use facial recognition vans in public places.
6. Right to vote: violated by the Voter Identification Regulations 2022 which were created for the express purpose of disenfranchising voters (as admitted by Jacob Rees-Mogg that it might have backfired and caused a disenfranchisement of older voters instead of younger), especially given the almost non-existent level of in-person voter fraud, and the non-possession of photo ID by a much larger number of people.
7. Right to a fair trial. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 drastically cut funding and availability of legal aid.
8. Right to nationality: thanks to the Begum case, the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 substantially weakened the already quite weak protections for natural-born British citizens who are entitled to another nationality. The minister can withdraw the nationality of any dual national, without any due process or even notifying them about it.
Governments have also attempted to do several things which failed or are in the process of failing:
1. The Home Secretary wishes to leave the ECHR, and there have been repeated unsuccessful attempts to repeal and water-down the Human Rights Act.
2. Successive governments have attempted to restrict the availability of end-to-end encrypted communications apps such as WhatsApp, despite relying on WhatsApp to keep ministerial communications secret from the public, and refusing to submit WhatsApp messages to public inquiries.
3. Successive governments have attempted to institute mandatory age verification to access the internet, although they have been mostly foiled by the IETF's improvements to internet privacy post-Snowden (thanks guys).