Since 2010, the Conservative government has launched a sustained attack on the homes, livelihoods and dignity of Britain’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, through its brutal and ideological austerity agenda. Many of these policies have violated the human rights of millions of people, including their rights to food, health, housing, work and an adequate standard of living. Without legal safeguards protecting these rights from abuse, communities have been left defenceless.
While previous Labour governments acted to protect against discrimination and abuse of our civil and political rights through the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act, adequate legal safeguards do not exist for the rights needed to ensure people have enough to eat or a decent place to live.
The Labour Campaign for Human Rights believes the next Labour government should introduce a new generation of human rights protections, and commit to enshrining our economic, social and cultural human rights into domestic law. In doing so, it could leave a powerful and lasting legacy, giving the rights to food, health and housing just as much protection as the rights to free speech and a fair trial.
