Human Rights Obligations
The Human Rights Act 1998 came into force on 2nd October 2000 and incorporated into domestic law the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Act makes it unlawful for any public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with a Convention right. The Council, as a public authority, is required to give careful consideration to the implications of Convention rights in all that we do, and we must ensure that we can justify any interference with Convention rights.

Council need to continue to ensure best practice and to alert other organisations within health and social services of their statutory obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998.

As a partner in the Department’s Regional Human Rights Liaison Group we work to pool resources and information, and share best practice and experiences on issues relating to the Human Rights Act. Currently this group are addressing four main areas:

• Confidentiality and privacy
• Restraint and seclusion
• Good decision-making processes respecting human rights
• Clinical judgements

We are also a member of the Eastern Area Human Rights Best Practice Group, where we work collaboratively with the Eastern Health and Social Services Board and Trusts to share best practice, disseminate information to staff within our respective organisations, and initiate joint working on issues identified by the Regional Human Rights Liaison Group.

As a public authority Council must continue to monitor our policies to ensure that they comply with our statutory obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998.