Since the Human Rights Act came into force in 2000, the UK public has developed a culture of wider respect for human rights, says the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The commission's inquiry shows how many individuals have been able to cite the act to negotiate better conditions or treatment from the National Health Service, all the vast machinery of local and central government and the police, courts and criminal justice system.
However, this is against a background of widespread misunderstanding and mistrust of the act. It is disturbing but perhaps not surprising that, according to research for the inquiry, around 40% of British people believe the only beneficiaries of human rights legislation are criminals and terrorists.
Much of this is certainly due to bad press given to the act. The media almost always focuses on stories that reinforce notions that human rights is a high-minded but nebulous concept, exploited by slippery lawyers and nit-picking bureaucrats.
The inquiry discovered that much of the act's day-to-day benefits among the public sector have gone unnoticed by a wider audience, while attention centres on a small number of high-profile civil rights cases.
But the act nevertheless ensures that the same principles of fairness, equality, justice and respect for individuals that are usually cited in such cases can equally be applied to ordinary, everyday situations: how you should be allowed to eat as a patient in hospital; the protection of the vulnerable, elderly, infirm or handicapped from neglect or abuse while in the care of the state; casual bullying in schools and workplaces that can easily become institutionalised; or the disregard of the rights of gay and lesbian couples in adoption cases.
Katie Ghose, director of the British Institute of Human Rights, the charity that conducts training courses for public sector workers, says: "In schools, hospitals, and care homes, people are using the Human Rights Act to challenge poor treatment and demand better services."
One such course involved the Mersey Care NHS Trust, which enabled people with learning difficulties and mental health problems to understand and exercise their human rights, through role play and education. Among the beneficiaries was Carole Legge (pictured) who suffers from learning difficulties, but was encouraged during the programme to leave a care home after many years and live by herself, taking her own decisions about her daily needs, such as shopping and socializing, assisted by regular carers. "I can look after myself more. I feel much more independent because now I understand my rights,'' she said.
But not only does the Act give ordinary people the ability to seek better treatment from the state but also imposes some "positive obligations" on public bodies to help create a much broader culture of respect for human rights.
The inquiry heard that this approach was encouraging change in many ways. In one hospital's A&E department, patients were being exposed to the public each time a curtain was pulled back. One day the matron said: "Have you thought about human rights and dignity?" The simple solution was to fit overlapping curtains.
And, if matters cannot be resolved, the public still has the right of legal redress. Five protesters arrested in Wakefield while holding a demonstration about pensions during a visit by the Queen won damages after the police were found to have breached the right to free expression and peaceful protest. Individuals can still also go to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Diane Blood's battle to use her late husband's sperm to start a family is a well-known example that does not involve civil liberties and terrorist groups.
But it's on everyday aspects of life that the act is having the biggest influence, says Ann Abraham, parliamentary and health services ombudsman. She told the inquiry: "I detect a sea change ... with a definite shift away from seeing human rights as being just about civil liberties, crime, national security, to a much more inclusive approach that recognises the small places where human rights play a part in ordinary daily life."
The British Institute of Human Rights: www.bihr.org.uk
Helping people with mental health issues and learning disabilities: www.merseycare.nhs.uk
Merseyside Care NHS Trust: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/fairer-britain/human-rights/human-rights-inquiry/case-studies/mersey-care-nhs-trust/