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[Text on screen]: Right to Family and Private Life. Article 8 of the Human Rights Act.

Our family and private life are important. It’s an integral part of our daily life.

What does the Human Rights Act officially say?

“Everyone has the right to respect for his family life, his home and his correspondence.”

But what exactly does it mean?

Basically, when it comes to Article 8, there are four key aspects it protects:

-Private life: Your right to be your own person and make decisions about your life.
-Family life: Your right to enjoy family relationships and who you form partners with.
-Our home: Your right to enjoy your home peacefully and without unlawful interference.
-Our correspondence: Your right to uncensored communication, without unlawful interference.

But there are some exceptions.

Article 8 can only be limited in very specific events, such as:

-For public safety.
-To prevent a crime.
-To protect the health of an individual.
-When protecting others’ rights and freedoms.

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

1. Stops the criminalisation of homosexuality. (Dudgeon case, 1981)
2. Stops our employers secretly spying on our emails. (Copland case, 2007)
3. Stops the police searching us without reasonable suspicion.(Gillan and Quinton case, 2010)

Our right to private life and being our own persons a core principle of the Human Rights Act.

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

Family, Privacy

To right to a private life explained in 2 minutes!

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Published on 22 Feb 2022

This video is about Article 8 of the Human Rights Act (HRA) which is respect for your private and family life. The right to respect for your private and family life. focuses on aspects of our lives related to our personal life, such as family and our correspondence, without being unreasonably interfered with by the government.

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.

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.

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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