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[Text on screen]: The Right to Life: Article 2 of the Human Rights Act.

The right to life is the most basic of all rights. Without it, we couldn’t enjoy any other rights.

What does the Human Rights Act officially say?

“Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law.”

But what exactly does it mean?

Basically, it means the government has to take steps to positively protect our lives. It does this by enforcing criminal laws and ensuring that public services keep us safe. It also means that suspicious or accidental deaths that involve the state must be properly investigated.

But there are some exceptions.

There are very limited circumstances when life cane betaken and not violate Article 2, such as in self-defence of unlawful violence or when making a lawful arrest. But even in these specific cases, the use of force must be appropriate and meet the needs of the issue.

Here are three key examples of what it does for us:

1. Doctors and social workers must protect our right to life. (Rabone case, 1976)
2. Appropriate force must be used when detaining prisoners. (Tekin and Arslan,2017)
3. Police must act on threats to our lives (The Osman case, 1998)

The right to life enables us to live a secure and peaceful life.

Learn more about your rights at www.eachother.org.uk
Equality

The right to life explained in two minutes!

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Published on 22 Feb 2022

The Human Rights Act is central to ensuring we can all live a safe and secure life. It sets out a range of principles that the government, and public bodies, must follow and uphold for all of us. If they fail to follow them, we have the ability to take our case to a UK court and, if our rights have been violated, we may be fairly compensated. The Human Rights Act has given us the ability to stand up to those in power.

But the Human Rights Act is under threat.

The government has announced plans to reform the HRA into a new British Bill of Rights, which lawyers and campaigners are concerned will shift more power in favour of the government, and weaken the protections we have available to us. We need to ensure that human rights are accessible and available for everyone, but we may risk losing those protections if the government’s reform comes into effect.

This video is about Article 2 of the HRA which is the right to life. This right ensures that no one can try to end your life,and the government must take reasonable steps to safeguard our wellbeing if we find our life is at risk.

This video is part of a wider series showcasing the protections the HRA provides us and why they are so important in our daily lives. We’ve also curated a week of written content surrounding the proposed reform of the HRA so that you can stay informed and up to date on the latest developments.

Want to learn more? Head on over to our spotlight page to read more about the proposals to the HRA. You can find more videos in this HRA series on our Youtube playlist.

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