We’ve finished our morning session here in Cardiff, and we’ve had a variety of interesting cross-party speakers in a discussion on ‘Human Rights, Democracy and Governance’. Despite the differing political perspectives there was a consensus on the need for a greater protection of individual liberties. Issues were raised by our main speakers surrounding the Data Protection Act and the DNA database, and the thin level of protection provided by these to UK citizens. There was also discussion on the future of the Human Rights Act, and the role of devolved government in protecting civil liberties.
One of our audience posed the following question for discussion: ”I, along with 4 million other UK citizens feel it is an absolute hypcoracy, that we are criminalised for smoking Cannabis. The Government feel it is ok for us to be addicted to alcohol, nicotene, or paracetamol – is it not a breach of human rights that we aren’t allowed to consume what we like?”