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Home | Equality and Human Rights Commission | Human Rights

HUMAN RIGHTS

The EHRC will have a basic remit to:

The Government believes that, in terms of its human rights activities, the commission should focus on promoting human rights values and standards and encouraging compliance by public authorities with the Human Rights Act.

It is also the Government’s strong belief that human rights proceedings should be brought only by those affected by the actions in question in line with the Human Rights Act.

Powers and duties

However, we intend to give the EHRC strong, promotional powers and duties. These will include the power to:

• promote the protection, awareness and understanding of human rights

• encourage good practice in human rights

• encourage public authorities to comply with their obligations under the Human Rights Act

• undertake inquiries into the protection or understanding of human rights by public authorities

• have the ability to seek leave to intervene in cases in which human rights are being argued.

The Government is not persuaded that positive statutory duties in relation to human rights, going beyond those in the Human Rights Act, are needed.

It is currently considering the extent to which the EHRC should be explicitly empowered to contribute to reports on the UK’s performance against its international human rights obligations.

Supporting cases

The EHRC will have explicit powers only to support cases under discrimination legislation.  It will not have powers to support free-standing human rights cases. 

Where relevant, however, it will be able to draw on human rights arguments in those discrimination cases it supports, reflecting the obligation on public authorities to act compatibly with the rights enshrined in the HRA and to interpret legislation so that it is compatible with these rights.

A small number of discrimination cases may arise where human rights arguments have been drawn on but where the discrimination argument underlying the case has fallen away, leaving a human rights issue of strategic concern to the EHRC.

While the strict application of the principle that the EHRC should not support free-standing human rights cases would mean that these cases should be pursued in other ways, there have been proposals that the EHRC should be able to continue its support in such circumstances.