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| }}</ref> | | }}</ref> |
| </blockquote> | | </blockquote> |
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| ===Human Rights Act 1998===
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| The United Kingdom has long been a member of the [https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal Council of Europe] and therefore subject to the [https://rm.coe.int/1680a2353d European Convention on Human Rights]. Under that Convention the United Kingdom may be sued in the [https://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=home&c European Court of Human Rights] (Strasbourg) for alleged human rights violations.
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| Certain parts of the Convention seems applicable to the non-therapeutic circumcision of minor boys:
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| * Article 3: Freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment
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| * Article 5: Everyone has a right to liberty and security of person.
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| * Article 8: Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.
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| The case of ''A v. United Kingdom'' (1998) involved the beating of a child with a garden cane. The court ruled:
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| <blockquote>
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| States required to take measures designed to ensure individuals not ill-treated in breach of Article 3 by other private individuals – children entitled to protection, through effective deterrence, against such treatment.<ref>{{REFdocument
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| |title=A. v United Kingdom. [1998] 2 FLR 959
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| |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/legal/A_v_UK1998/
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| |contribution=
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| |last=
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| |first=
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| |publisher=Circumcision Reference Library
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| |format=
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| |date=1998
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| |accessdate=2021-09-07
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| }}</ref>
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| </blockquote>
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| The case clearly established the right of children to protection. Nevertheless, no known cases have applied international human rights law specifically to the practice of non-therapeutic child circumcision in the UK.
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| The human rights provisions of the Convention have now been brought into domestic law by the [https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/42/contents Human Rights Act 1998], so violations of human rights law could be litigated in the domestic courts of the UK.
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| ===Forward into the 21st century=== | | ===Forward into the 21st century=== |