In July 2024, a new Labour government was elected following more than a decade of backsliding on human rights by previous governments.
The UK faces a cost-of-living crisis which has yet to be addressed by policies that safeguard the economic, social and cultural rights of people from low-income households, particularly their rights to food, housing, and social security.
Laws criminalizing protests undermine democratic rights. Police in 2024 widened and normalized the use of facial recognition surveillance technologies, including at peaceful protests and gatherings.
While the Labour government withdrew the previous UK government's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, legislation violating refugee rights remained and anti-migrant narratives continued to be mainstreamed in politics and the media.
UK authorities have yet to fully right the wrongs committed against the Windrush generation and the Indigenous Chagossian people.
Rule of Law
Several laws, including the 2023 Public Order Act and the 2022 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, severely increase police powers and undermine free speech, peaceful assembly, and democratic rights in the UK. At time of writing, the Labour government had yet to repealing these and other repressive laws.
In 2024, the UK continued to crack down on and criminalize climate protests. The police were granted greater powers in April as part of the Public Order Act to restrict peaceful protests “to clamp down on disruptive protesters.”
In January, the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention expressed serious concerns about “increasingly severe crackdowns on environmental defenders in the United Kingdom.”
In May, the High Court ruled that anti-protest measures introduced in 2023, allowing authorities to clamp down on any protests deemed ‘more than minor’ disruptions, unlawfully restricted protest, a decision described by civil society groups as a “huge victory for democracy.” The Labour government chose to continue the legal challenge against the ruling brought by the previous government, with the appeal scheduled for December.
Also in May, the UN Human Rights Committee called on the UK to "end the use of facial recognition and other mass surveillance technologies by law enforcement agencies at protests, in order to safeguard privacy, non-discrimination, freedom of expression and association and assembly rights for protesters."
Asylum-Seekers and Migrants
The Labour government ended the previous government’s “Rwanda scheme,” aimed at transferring asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda, and committed to processing about 90,000 backlogged asylum claims. It appeared to mirror the previous government’s deterrence-oriented approach by saying it would establish a new border security command unit targeting people smugglers and introduce a Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill to provide for fast-track returns for individuals coming from so-called safe countries, which could limit individualized assessments of risks on return.
The 2023 Illegal Migration Act and 2022 Nationality and Borders Act remain on the books, legalizing pushbacks at sea and offshore processing, failing to provide safe and legal pathways to the UK, and criminalizing those seeking asylum through irregular routes.
Poverty and Inequality
Taking office during an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, a key test for the Labour government is developing plans to support the millions of people living in poverty and struggling to afford essentials.
The Labour government pledged to enact the “socio-economic duty” provision of the Equality Act—pending since 2010—which would require government bodies to act to remedy deep, structural inequalities. OECD figures suggest that the UK has among the highest levels of income inequality in Europe.
However, at this writing, the UK had refused to abolish the two-child limit in social security policy, a key driver of child poverty, despite mounting pressure. It also had ended winter fuel payments for most people aged 66 and older in England and Wales, reportedly without any impact assessment. The Scottish government followed suit. Civil society called on the Labour government to ensure that its pledge to review Universal Credit, the main form of social security, is carried out in line with the principles of the Essentials Guarantee to ensure everyone receiving social security support can enjoy their right to an adequate standard of living.
Racism and Ethnic Discrimination
In July and August, the UK was rocked by far-right, racist, and Islamophobic violence across the country, targeting migrants, Muslims and ethnic minorities, with damage to mosques and asylum-seeker accommodation. In Rotherham, asylum seekers were trapped in their accommodation as rioters smashed windows and set the building on fire. The violence was fueled by misinformation online, wrongly blaming migrants, Muslims, and ethnic minorities for economic woes instead of political leaders. As a reaction to the racist riots, many people took to the streets in anti-racism protests to show solidarity with affected communities.
While the Labour government maintained a focus on action to address a worrying rise in antisemitism, it has yet to demonstrate a commitment to address root causes of antisemitism, systemic racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia in the UK, beyond a ‘law and order’ approach that focuses on prosecuting racist hate crimes.
Politicians and media outlets have contributed to a hostile environment towards ethnic and racial minorities by reproducing anti-migrant, xenophobic, and Islamophobic narratives.
Six years since the “Windrush Scandal,” the Windrush generation is finally seeing steps towards justice. In October, the Labour government announced commitments to right the wrongs affecting thousands from the Windrush generation, including being denied access to housing, health care and employment based on mistaken determinations that they were not British citizens. The commitments include funding to facilitate access to the 2019 Windrush compensation scheme and the appointment of a dedicated Windrush commissioner.
On October 3, 2024, the UK and Mauritius announced a political agreement, subject to finalization in a treaty, recognizing Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Islands and purporting to allow Chagossians to return to some islands – excluding the largest island Diego Garcia – and committing to establishing a trust fund for the Chagossians. Chagossians criticized the agreement over both governments’ failures adequately to consult with them.
More than seven years later, no person or company has been held accountable for the deadly fire in 2017 in Grenfell Tower, which housed predominantly Black and ethnic minority people. An inquiry found systemic failures by central and local government and “dishonesty” by manufacturers of flammable cladding on the building led to 71 “avoidable” deaths.
Disability Rights
The UK’s Mental Health Act continued to violate the rights of people with disabilities.
In May 2024, the UN Human Rights Committee publishedfindings criticizing the UK authorities’ practice of arbitrarily detaining and involuntarily treating people with disabilities, including children, under the act based solely on their actual or perceived disability. The committee expressed concern that the average length of stay for people with learning disabilities and autism detained under the act is over two years. In July, the Labour government committed to legislative changes that limit such involuntary detention.
The UN review followed an investigation by The Independent and Sky News that found almost 20,000 sexual abuse incidents were reported in NHS-run mental health units in the last five years. NHS data indicated that over 2,000 people with learning disabilities and autism were still in in-patient units as of August 2024, despite a commitment to reduce the number of inpatient beds by 50 percent from March 2015 to March 2024 and develop community-based services.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
In April, the NHS published the Cass Review, an independent assessment of gender identity services for children and young adults in the UK. It recommended an expansion of access to gender identity services for transgender young people in England, while recommending strict limits on their care. Experts criticizedthe review for inaccuracies, cherry picking evidence, and ethical concerns. Rights groups warned that anti-trans groups were using it to spread misinformation. Following the review, the NHS banned puberty blockers—defying established medical standards. In August, the British Medical Association urged the NHS to lift the ban and pause other recommendations from the review.