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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 :

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
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General information is available from the government website on the Act:
http://www.humanrights.gov.uk/hramenu.htm [External link: Open in new browser window]

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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