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The UK government has updated their definition of extremism to one which starts:

the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to:

  1. negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others; or ...

Is it clear to which fundamental rights this is referring to?

Results of a google

In the top hits there are two official looking documents, that appropriately serve to highlight the ambiguity:

Equality and Human Rights Commission: The Human Rights Act 1998

This starts "The Human Rights Act 1998 sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms that everyone in the UK is entitled to" and is quite a long list. It includes things like the Article 10: Freedom of expression and Article 11: Freedom of assembly and association, the curtailing of which seems far from extreme in the current parliament.

UK Government: Review of the Balance of Competences between the United Kingdom and the European Union Fundamental Rights (2014)

This compares fundamental rights in UK, EU and international law. It does highlight that it is undeniable that we have had fundamental rights negated by brexit, in that previously we had the fundamental right to work in Europe, and we no longer do.

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  • The prorogueing of parliament arguably triggers point 2 of the definition as well. It did trigger my irony-o-meter somewhat. The Rwanda bill also arguably negates/destroys fundamental human rights and freedoms.
    – Dikran Marsupial
    Commented Mar 15 at 14:44

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The Government's publication of the 2024 definition of extremism spells out in a footnote exactly what this phrase refers to.

In particular those rights and freedoms listed in Schedule 1 to the Human Rights Act 1998. Lawful expression of one’s beliefs, for example advocating for changes to the law by Parliament, exercising the right to protest, or expressing oneself in art, literature, and comedy, is not extremism.

Schedule 1 of the Act incorporates the rights and freedoms enumerated in the European Convention on Human Rights (and subsequent protocols ratified by the UK) into domestic UK law.

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    Good find. But it makes me wonder, If you subsitute fundamental right in : "the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others" by one explicit example "right to protest", you get : "the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to negate or destroy the right to protest of others" ... Did the government just declare themselves extremist??
    – Hoki
    Commented Mar 15 at 12:42
  • @Hoki Only if you consider the government to also have admitted that they did so to promote or advance of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance.
    – kaya3
    Commented Mar 15 at 15:13
  • @Hoki I think it should be obvious that they meant "right to protest peacefully" (maybe that's explicit in the HRA that they're summarizing). Violent protests are not a fundamental right, so prohibiting it is not extremist.
    – Barmar
    Commented Mar 15 at 15:19

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