Human Rights and State Accountability for Fire Safety in Blocks of Flats

Abstract

Two years on from the Grenfell Tower fire, it is estimated that maybe as many as 200,000 people in the UK are living in buildings with major fire safety defects. Some of these blocks are wrapped in flammable cladding, as was Grenfell Tower, but many blocks have other fire safety risks, both known and unknown, for which we have only limited data. With only inadequate recourse through private law for most of those affected, can human rights law offer an effective avenue for redress? This paper will illustrate the UK government’s failure to implement an effective regulatory system for the building and refurbishment of high-rise buildings (especially in relation to combustible cladding systems). It will then consider whether this failure constitutes an ongoing violation of Articles 2, 3, 8 and Article 1 Protocol No. 1 (“A1P1”) of the European Convention on Human Rights.