Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Human Rights Act 1998 (Amendment) Order 2004, and shall come into force on the day after the date on which it is made.

Amendments to the Human Rights Act 1998

2.—(1) In section 1(1)(c) (the Convention rights) of the Human Rights Act 1998 (“the Act”), for “Articles 1 and 2 of the Sixth Protocol” substitute “Article 1 of the Thirteenth Protocol”.

(2) In section 21(1) (interpretation) of the Act omit the definition of “the Sixth Protocol” and insert after the definition of “the Eleventh Protocol”—

““the Thirteenth Protocol” means the protocol to the Convention (concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances) agreed at Vilnius on 3rd May 2002;”

(3) For Part 3 of Schedule 1 to the Act, substitute—

“PART 3ARTICLE 1 OF THE THIRTEENTH PROTOCOL

Abolition of the death penalty

The death penalty shall be abolished. No one shall be condemned to such penalty or executed.”

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order is made following the ratification by the United Kingdom of the Thirteenth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (“the Convention”) on 10 October 2003. The Thirteenth Protocol abolishes the death penalty in all circumstances. It supersedes the Sixth Protocol to the Convention, which abolished the death penalty in most circumstances, but permitted States to make provision in their law for the death penalty in respect of acts committed in time of war or of imminent threat of war.

This Order amends the Human Rights Act 1998 by substituting Article 1 of the Thirteenth Protocol for Articles 1 and 2 of the Sixth Protocol in Part 3 of Schedule 1 to that Act, which gives Articles 1 and 2 of the Sixth Protocol the status of “Convention rights” protected by the Act. Article 1 of the Thirteenth Protocol is in identical terms to Article 1 of the Sixth Protocol, but omits the exception allowing the death penalty in time of war previously contained in Article 2 to the Sixth Protocol.

This Order also amends sections 1 of the Human Rights Act 1998 by substituting references to Article 1 of the Thirteenth Protocol for Articles 1 and 2 of the Sixth Protocol, and section 21 of that Act by omitting the definition of the Sixth Protocol and inserting a definition of the Thirteen Protocol.