What's the UK Government's problem with equality?

For 25 years, successive UK governments have refused to sign a key international treaty designed to ensure that all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to the equal protection of the law. The treaty is Protocol 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which was opened for signature in 2000.

Protocol 12 is important because, in seeking to ensure the equality of all persons through the enforcement of a general prohibition of discrimination, it guarantees that no one shall be discriminated against on any ground by any public authority. 

Protocol 12, therefore, enforces the key principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.

The UK is an outlier in the Council of Europe

The UK has not signed Protocol 12. This makes the UK an outlier in the Council of Europe because, of the current 46 member states, 37 member states have signed Protocol 12. To date, 20 member states have ratified Protocol 12 and brought it into force.  

As is common in respect of international treaties, when a member state signs Protocol 12 it signals its initial agreement with its principles and then begins the journey, in the context of its own domestic legal and political arrangements, towards potentially ratifying and bringing it into force. 

The UK has never shown any commitment to signing Protocol 12 and embarking on the journey towards bringing it into force.

What’s the UK’s problem with Protocol 12?

The UK has a long history of refusing to sign up to Protocol 12. In September 2000, two months before Protocol 12 was opened for signature, the Government stated that there were “no plans at present to sign and ratify” it. That position has remained unchanged across subsequent governments ever since. 

In April of this year, during a meeting of the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, Lord Alton of Liverpool and Alex Sobel MP both questioned Shabana Mahmood MP (Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice) on the UK’s position in respect of Protocol 12. Ms. Mahmood replied: “our position is not different from that of previous Governments. We remain – how shall I put it? – unconvinced of the necessity for Protocol 12…”

Over the last 25 years successive governments have tended to advance two principal objections to the UK signing and ratifying Protocol 12. The first objection is that, if the UK signed and ratified Protocol 12, there would be an explosion of litigation against the UK in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The second objection is that the UK would be subject to unpredictable interpretations of Protocol 12 by the ECtHR. 

Are the UK’s objections to Protocol 12 justified?

As I have explained elsewhere, the two principal objections to the UK signing and ratifying Protocol 12 are not justified. 

First, analysis of cases in the ECtHR shows that, when a member state of the Council of Europe brings Protocol 12 into force, this has virtually no impact on the volume of discrimination related cases dealt with by the ECtHR (through decisions and judgments). The available evidence, therefore, should strongly dispel any fear that bringing Protocol 12 into force will result in an explosion of litigation and the ECtHR being swamped with discrimination related complaints against the UK.

Second, analysis shows that the claim that Protocol 12 creates unpredictability in how it will be given effect by the ECtHR is not credible. The ECtHR’s case-law shows that the ECtHR strictly adheres to very clear and long-established principles when considering complaints of discrimination under Protocol 12 and, therefore, the interpretative framework that the ECtHR applies can be anticipated with a very high degree of certainty. As such, how Protocol 12 would be given effect by the ECtHR in any case against the UK is highly predictable. 

Why the UK should sign Protocol 12

The UK should sign Protocol 12 because, as Lord Cashman recently stated in the House of Lords, in the context of “the attacks on fundamental human rights that we are witnessing in the United States of America, Gaza, Ukraine, parts of Europe and elsewhere”, this is “the time for the United Kingdom to join the 37 other European states of the Council of Europe and reaffirm these international principles, which underpin and in fact define every civilised society”. 

Or as Alex Sobel MP recently put it in the House of Commons, at “a time of rising discrimination, the UK should reassert its commitment to the value of equality [and it] can do this in a powerful way by signing and ratifying protocol 12”. 

In this 75th anniversary year of the ECHR, when it is widely recognised that there is significant discrimination in the UK and some forms of hatred are increasing, signing Protocol 12 would be a positive step towards better preventing and addressing discrimination and promoting equality in the UK. 

People in the UK should demand that their government sign Protocol 12 and commit our country to the fundamental principle that all human beings are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. 

Further reading

Paul Johnson (2025), The UK and Protocol 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights, available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5341401 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5341401

Paul Johnson, Lord Cashman, and Lord Lexden (6 May 2025) How Britain can reassert its commitment to the value of equality, The Yorkshire Post, available at: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/columnists/how-britain-can-reassert-its-commitment-to-the-value-of-equality-paul-johnson-lord-cashman-lord-lexden-5106288