KNOW YOUR RIGHTS | CONSTITUTION AND RIGHTS

Right to give informed consent

According to the NHS “a person must give permission before they receive any type of medical treatment, test or examination”. Such consent must be voluntary, meaning “the decision to either consent or not to consent to treatment must be made by the person, and must not be influenced by pressure from medical staff, friends or family”

According to Article 2 of The European Convention on Human Rights “1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.”

Encompassed in European Court of Human Rights' judgements “the right to be free from non-consensual medical treatment or examination”

According to Resolution 2361, January 27th 2021 of the Council of Europe
7.3.1. ensure that citizens are informed that the vaccination is NOT mandatory and that no one is politically, socially, or otherwise pressured to get themselves vaccinated, if they do not wish to do so themselves;

7.3.2. ensure that no one is discriminated against for not having been vaccinated, due to possible health risks or not wanting to be vaccinated;

7.1.5. …[should] put in place independent vaccine compensation programmes to ensure compensation for undue damage and harm resulting from vaccination

The Council of Europe is not the EU, but the international body of 47 states of which the European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights, is part. Great Britain is a signatory to the ECHR and a member of the Council of Europe.

According to the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Art.25(d) “health professionals [must] provide care of the same quality to persons with disabilities as to others, including on the basis of free and informed consent”, which assumes that free consent is a right of people in general.

Constitution

Although the United Kingdom doesn't have a single written constitution in the same way as other countries, it still has a constitution in the form of laws and rights set out in statute, common law and customs. Here is an A5 flyer to carry with you Freedom of movement is enshrined in Statute and Common Law

Relevant Statutes include:-

Magna Carta 1297

“I. Confirmation of Liberties.

FIRST, We have granted to God, and by this our present Charter have confirmed, for Us and our Heirs for ever, that the Church of England shall be free, and shall have all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable. We have granted also, and given to all the Freemen of our Realm, for Us and our Heirs for ever, these Liberties under-written, to have and to hold to them and their Heirs, of Us and our Heirs for ever.”

“IX. Liberties of London, &c.

THE City of London shall have all the old Liberties and Customs [which it hath been used to have]. Moreover We will and grant, that all other Cities, Boroughs, Towns, and the Barons of the Five Ports, and all other Ports, shall have all their Liberties and free Customs.”

“XXIX. Imprisonment, &c. contrary to Law. Administration of Justice.

NO Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.”

Bill of Rights 1688

“Grants of Fines, &c. before Conviction, &c.

And severall Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgement against the Persons upon whome the same were to be levyed. All which are utterly directly contrary to the knowne Lawes and Statutes and Freedome of this Realme”

“Supremacy.

I A B doe sweare That I doe from my Heart Abhorr, Detest and Abjure as Impious and Hereticall this damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of Rome may be deposed or murdered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever. And I doe declare That noe Forreigne Prince Person Prelate, State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preeminence or Authoritie Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall within this Realme Soe helpe me God.”

“The said Rights claimed. Tender of the Crown. Regal Power exercised. Limitation of the Crown.

And they doe Claime Demand and Insist upon all and singular the Premises as their undoubted Rights and Liberties and that noe Declarations Judgements Doeings or Proceedings to the Prejudice of the People in any of the said Premisses ought in any wise to be drawne hereafter into Consequence or Example.”

“Now in pursuance of the Premisses the said Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in Parlyament assembled for the ratifying confirming and establishing the said Declaration and the Articles Clauses Matters and Things therein contained by the Force of a Law made in due Forme by Authority of Parlyament doe pray that it may be declared and enacted That all and singular the Rights and Liberties asserted and claimed in the said Declaration are the true auntient and indubitable Rights and Liberties of the People of this Kingdome and soe shall be esteemed allowed adjudged deemed and taken to be and that all and every the particulars aforesaid shall be firmly and strictly holden and observed as they are expressed in the said Declaration And all Officers and Ministers whatsoever shall serve their Majestyes and their Successors according to the same in all times to come.”

Coronation Oath Act 1688 confirms separation of statutes from laws and customs

“Will You solemnely Promise and Sweare to Governe the People of this Kingdome of England and the Dominions thereto belonging according to the Statutes in Parlyament Agreed on and the Laws and Customs of the same?”

Act of Settlement 1700 confirms the laws are our birthright

An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject

The Laws and Statutes of the Realm confirmed.

“And whereas the Laws of England are the Birthright of the People thereof and all the Kings and Queens who shall ascend the Throne of this Realm ought to administer the Government of the same according to the said Laws and all their Officers and Ministers ought to serve them respectively according to the same The said Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons do therefore further humbly pray That all the Laws and Statutes of this Realm for securing the established Religion and the Rights and Liberties of the People thereof and all other Laws and Statutes of the same now in Force may be ratified and confirmed And the same are by His Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the said Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons and by Authority of the same ratified and confirmed accordingly.”

Union wth England Act 1707 confirms freedom of movement

“Article IV

That all the Subjects of the United Kingdom of Great Britain shall from and after the Union have full Freedom and Intercourse of Trade and Navigation to and from any port or place within the said United Kingdom and the Dominions and Plantations thereunto belonging And that there be a Communication of all other Rights Privileges and Advantages which do or may belong to the Subjects of either Kingdom except where it is other wayes expressly agreed in these Articles”

Relevant Common Law from case law includes:

In Ex Parte Lewis, (1888) 21 Q.B.D. 191 Wills J. said, at p. 197: "The only 'dedication' in the legal sense that we are aware of is that of a public right of passage, of which the legal description is a 'right for all Her Majesty's subjects at all seasons of the year freely and at their will to pass and repass without let or hindrance.'

Lord Evershed M.R. said, at p. 259: "The rights of members of the public to use the highway are, prima facie, rights of passage to and from places which the highway adjoins;”. Randall v. Tarrant [1955] 1 W.L.R. 255.

Lord Irvine of Lairg L.C. in Lords of Appeal Judgment in DPP v. Jones and Another [1999]
“I conclude that the judgments of Lord Esher M.R. and Collins L.J. are authority for the proposition that the public have the right to use the public highway for such reasonable and usual activities as are consistent with the general public's primary right to use the highway for purposes of passage" and repassage

Lord Irvine of Lairg L.C. "I conclude therefore the law to be that the public highway is a public place which the public may enjoy for any reasonable purpose, provided the activity in question does not amount to a public or private nuisance and does not obstruct the highway by unreasonably impeding the primary right of the public to pass and repass: within these qualifications there is a public right of peaceful assembly on the highway.”