Rights Protected by the European Convention on Human Rights

This video introduces the rights protected by the ECHR. These rights were brought onto the UK statute book by the Human Rights Act 1998, meaning we can assert rights protected under the ECHR against public bodies and, in certain circumstances, other individuals or private organisations. Please note, however, that we already had many of these rights in the UK prior to signing up to the ECHR in 1950 (such as the right to a fair trial, as you saw in 3.5). Incidentally, the UK was the first signatory to the ECHR, which came into force in 1953.