Amnesty International – Human Rights Poll 2021

Is a redraft of the Human Rights Act seen as a priority for UK adults? If so, which rights would they protect?

Only one in five (18%) UK adults think that reviewing the human rights act should be a priority for the UK Government over the next few years and is the lowest priority of all thirteen issues tested.
If the UK Government redrafts the Human Rights Act, two in five (38%) UK adults would want to protect all sixteen rights currently protected and one in eight (12%) say they don’t know.
If the UK Government redrafts the Human Rights Act, the rights most commonly identified by UK adults as ones that should be excluded include the ban on the death penalty (16%), slavery (14%), and torture (13%).
Approaching three quarters (73%) of UK adults agree that rights, laws, and protections must apply to everybody equally in order to be effective, with only 7% who say they disagree.
Seven in ten (68%) UK adults agree that it is important to have a safety net to be able to hold the Government to account when things go wrong – one in ten (8%) disagree.
At least half of UK adults agree that human rights should be considered permanent and politicians should not be able to reduce them (59%) and that the coronavirus pandemic has made it clear we need human rights protections more than ever (53%).

Date Published: 03/03/2021

Categories: GB | Public and communities | Social

Client: Amnesty International

Methodology

Savanta ComRes interviewed 2,247 UK adults online between 26th and 28th February 2021. Data were weighted to be representative of UK adults by key demographics including age, gender, region and social grade. Savanta ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.