EIGHT hundred years on from Magna Carta, which set out the basic right of the individual to challenge the powerful, the legacy is under threat.

At York Amnesty International group we know how vital human rights protections are abroad, but here at home they are sometimes taken for granted.

The Human Rights Act has allowed elderly couples here to challenge their separation from each other in different nursing homes, a mother who was a victim of domestic violence to get her children back, and British soldiers to challenge the inadequate kit they were given.

Those are just some examples of how our precious hard-won rights make a difference to ordinary people.

People all over the world are still fighting for the same rights which the Act protects here.

It took us all a long time to lay claim to those rights, and we must not let politicians take them away with the stroke of a pen.

Amnesty is calling on all political parties to stand up and “do the human rights thing”.

That means protecting the Human Rights Act which protects us all.

We don’t want to be the generation who allowed this country to become a crueller, less fair place. We want these issues to be important in the minds of all the political parties.

York Amnesty meets on the second Tuesday of every month at 7.30pm at The Friends Meeting House in York.

Matthew Laycock, York Amnesty Group, Fairfax Street, York.