Today (10th December) marks Human Rights Day, and Amnesty International has taken the opportunity to draw our attention to the fact that most people in the UK are strong backers of human rights protections, believing they’re now more important than ever.
We’re living in turbulent (and sometimes alarming) times, with various political decisions making us question whether human rights are taking a backwards step.
According to recent polling conducted by Savanta for Amnesty International UK:
• More than 8 in 10 people say human rights protections are as important or more important today than when they were created after the Second World War
• 87% believe rights and laws must apply equally to everyone
• 78% say rights should be permanent and protected from government interference
• Support for the UK remaining in the European Convention on Human Rights is almost twice as high as support for leaving (48% vs 26%)
What with recent events such as Grenfell, the Hillsborough disaster, the infected blood scandal and the Windrush scandal still in the forefront of our minds, it’s very clear that as a nation, across all regions and communities, people believe human rights shouldn’t be a subjective political grabbing point.
Tom Morrison, Amnesty International UK’s Human Rights Legal Frameworks Campaign Manager, said:
“There is a growing global trend where some attempt to whip up anti-rights sentiment and sow division between people. Human rights exist precisely to stop the powerful from dividing us, and harming the vulnerable.
“Human Rights protections were not designed only for fair weather. They were built for the storms, the moments when authoritarianism, institutional failure or abuses of power put people at risk.
“Thankfully, the UK public instinctively understands this. Seventy-five years on from the creation of the European Convention on Human Rights, people are telling us they want their rights protected permanently. They do not trust politicians to mark their own homework or decide which rights people should or should not have.
“This is a day to celebrate our national pride in human rights and the equality they guarantee. These protections are a hard-won legacy of our grandparents’ generation. We must be responsible custodians, so that future generations inherit them too.”
Fairness. Dignity. Privacy. Family life. Human rights are essential for the strong backbone of any country; when those rights are eroded, there’s a real danger of losing who we are as a people and doing real damage. That’s why we, at In Pure Spirit, are strong supporters of Human Rights Day.
Stand up for human rights – and check out the United Nations official website for more information.
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