M
to build [...] trust in the Government and indeed A recent Equality and Human Rights
O
in each other.” Commission survey found that 80% of
She acknowledged the unavoidable ideological respondents felt positive about the idea of
R
differences between Conservatives, Labour and human rights but more than 50% believed the
N
Liberal Democrats, as between Unionists and language of human rights is only invoked by
I
N
Nationalists in Northern Ireland, on whether people trying to lay claim to something to which
G
social and economic rights should be included they are not entitled. Trevor recognised that
alongside other rights. However, the Commission although such cynicism could be blamed on the
P
has argued that “the prize in the bag is a media, the media are caught in paradoxes of
L
E
democratic society that respects the rights of their own. The Sun and the Daily Mail support
N
all and provides assurances that people will be the values behind our human rights: fairness,
A
treated fairly in the future.” respect, equality, dignity, and autonomy, “but they
R
are pretty selective in the specific rights or rights- Y
“In order for civil society activism to play its full part bearers they choose to champion and those they
in the public and political debate, Government has choose to ignore or even ridicule”.
to some extent act as a facilitator” It is this complexity and confusion that Trevor
Professor Monica McWilliams
sees as the strongest argument for a robust
legislative framework within which to debate
and test rights. However, this framework itself
Keynote speech: Trevor Phillips
creates problems of public perception. Human
OBE, Chair, Equality and Human
rights should be universal and equal; yet achieving
Rights Commission
equality in practice means giving more attention to
defending the rights of the weak and marginalised.
Trevor Phillips explored the challenges involved in
This can lead to perceptions that human rights are
communications about human rights. He recalled
about inequality. The Equality and Human Rights
“possibly the most elegant form of words to
Commission is the first national body tasked with
define human rights” contained in the American
promoting human rights values and the Human
Declaration of Independence: “We hold these
Rights Act. Trevor said that the Commission now
truths to be self-evident; that all men are created
needs to cut through the ambiguity and make
equal […] with certain inalienable rights; that
the idea and the practice of human rights “both
among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of
intelligible and useful”.
happiness.” He acknowledged that the authors of
the Declaration lived in “a simpler age” without
Trevor Phillips
modern day ethical dilemmas such as stem-cell
research or the power of chequebook journalism.
The tangled historical roots of the struggle for
rights, he said, has led to “high expectations of
our rights” and resulted in added complexities
in our society, our working environment and our
lives as individuals. Public and private services may
be notionally under our control as citizens and
consumers and yet, Trevor warned, both “invade
every corner of our lives and create myriad
situations in which our rights can be abused and
may need protection”. He cited the explosive
spread of digital data and its storage as a threat to
our right to privacy – a threat which many of us
are completely unaware of.
The diversity in perceptions of rights makes
cultural consensus about them difficult both
within and between nations: “An American
citizen regards it as a treasured right to walk
down the street carrying a gun. We regard it as
9
an equally basic right to walk down the street in
the expectation that nobody is carrying a gun”.
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