DEMOS Project - Module: Admissions

The Human Rights Act (1998)

This Act came fully into force in British law on 2nd of October 2000. It implements the European Convention on Human Rights. Higher Education providers are covered by the legislation as they are classed as 'public bodies'.

Some relevant parts of the Act for HEIs are :

the right to education.
the prohibition of discrimination on any grounds including disability.
the right to freedom of expression.

It is unclear at this stage how the legislation can be interpreted for higher education because there are considerable complications. For instance, the UK government has a restriction on Protocol 1, Article 2 (the right to education) that it can only be enforced 'in so far as it is compatible with the provision of efficient instruction or training and the avoidance of unreasonable public expenditure'.

More information is available from various online sources :

BBC News : Human rights in society - Education
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/
uk/2000/human_rights/education.stm

General information is available from the government website on the Act:
http://www.humanrights.gov.uk/hramenu.htm

The Disability Rights Commission has produced a report on the Human Rights Act which can be downloaded from its website at:
http://www.drc-gb.org/drc/
InformationAndLegislation/Page313.asp

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