What we mean by Human Rights
Rights for Everyone, Every Day
At BIHR, human rights are not abstract ideals or legal technicalities. They are real-life protections that shape how we are treated by those with public power, and how we are accountable when we hold that power. Whether it is a national health policy, or a local hospital, housing law or a social landlord, education guidance or the school at the end of the road. Human rights, as brought home by our Human Rights Act (HRA), are for everyone, every day.
The Foundation: Dignity, Respect and Justice
Human Rights: 5 Everyday Areas
Human Rights are Legal Protections
Our Approach: Rights Beyond the Courtroom
Breaking the Divide: Civil, Political, Economic & Social Rights
Human Rights Matter: Now more than ever
The Foundation: Dignity, Respect, and Justice
Human rights are universal and legal protections that ensure every person can live with dignity, equality, and fairness. They are about ensuring that those who hold power, whether national government or public services, treat people with respect and accountability.
In the UK, people's core human rights protections are set out in our law, the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA). The HRA contains rights this country first helped write down following World War II in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The HRA brings makes them part of our law, making the rights accessible to us all here at home.
Our Human Rights Act means public authorities, such as NHS services, councils, police, care providers, social landlords, schools and others, have a legal duty to respect and protect human rights in their everyday decisions and to apply other laws in ways that support our rights.
Human Rights: 5 Everyday Areas
BIHR focuses on making human rights real in the five everyday systems where people most often encounter public power:
Education: enabling people to learn in safe, equitable environments
Health: enabling people to receive care and treatment that respects dignity, autonomy and equality
Welfare: enabling people to live with security and fairness
Social Care: enabling people to flourish and live well
Housing: enabling people to live in sound, accessible places to call home
These aren't simply areas of public policy. They're where decisions made by public bodies have the most direct impact on people's dignity, autonomy, family life and equality. And, importantly, where the Human Rights Act already gives people real rights, and public bodies real duties.
Court action is a key form of justice. So is everyday justice. People shouldn't have to go to court to have their rights respected; public bodies and national law and policymakers should be using human rights proactively, as a framework for fair, person-centred, and accountable decisions.
Human Rights Are Legal Protections
Too often, people are left relying on charity, goodwill, or “doing the right thing.” Human rights in our HRA change that. It gives people a legal foundation to:
Speak up about poor treatment, marginalisation and discrimination
Advocate for change in their lives and communities
Hold decision-makers to account
And for those with power in national government right through to those delivering public services, human rights mean a lawful, values-based foundation for improving practice and making better decisions.
Much of the Human Rights Act's impact happens before any complaint or court case is ever made. Because public bodies have a legal duty to act compatibly with human rights, the Act gives decision-makers a framework for getting things right from the outset — not just a way to challenge things after they've gone wrong.
Our Approach: Rights Beyond the Courtroom
While legal cases are important, BIHR’s work focuses on bringing human rights out of courtrooms and into real life. We believe that positive social change happens when:
People understand and can rely on their rights
Public bodies and government know and comply with their legal duties
For BIHR, the biggest barrier is rarely a missing law. It's what we call the implementation gap; the space between rights that exist in law and rights that are actually realised in people's everyday lives. Closing that gap is what our work is about.
Both can work together to create fairer systems and better outcomes. Our approach is guided by the PANEL principles, a recognised framework for rights-based practice:
Participation: People must be meaningfully involved in decisions that affect their rights
Accountability: Public bodies are enabled to be answerable for their decisions
Non-discrimination: Everyone’s rights matter
Empowerment: People should have the tools to know and claim their rights
Law: Rights are not optional - they are protected by UK law.
Breaking the Divide: Civil, Political, Economic and Social Rights
Traditionally, human rights are divided into two boxes: civil and political rights (e.g. the right to life, freedom from inhuman treatment and abuse, liberty) and economic and social rights (e.g. healthcare, housing, education). That split can be a useful shorthand, but it doesn't reflect how rights actually work in people's lives.
A failure to provide adequate social care can lead to unlawful deprivation of liberty.
Poor housing can undermine someone's right to respect for their private and family life.
Lack of access to healthcare for people experiencing significant mental distress can end up being inhuman treatment.
Education that is inaccessible to a disabled child can result in unlawful discrimination.
This isn't just BIHR's view, it reflects how human rights law itself has developed. In Airey v Ireland, the European Court of Human Rights rejected a strict separation between civil and political rights and economic and social rights, ruling there is "no watertight division" between the two. Mrs Airey could not afford legal representation to pursue a judicial separation - an economic barrier - and the Court found this breached both her right to a fair trial and her right to private and family life: the same rights protected in our Human Rights Act.
This matters practically, not just conceptually. The UK has signed up to international commitments on economic and social rights - covering health, housing, education and social security standards – through the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). But ICESCR is not part of UK domestic law: people cannot bring an ICESCR case to a UK court.
The Human Rights Act is different. It is already part of our law, and it already gives people enforceable rights, and public bodies enforceable duties, covering many of the same issues: family life, dignity, liberty, equality and access to justice.
That's why, whatever future debates take place about new legal protections, the Human Rights Act is already the UK's most practical and enforceable framework for many economic and social rights issues, right now.
At BIHR, we focus on showing how the Human Rights Act can protect people's rights across all areas of life and people's experiences of public services and government, whether in their local community or at the national level. Too often overlooked or untapped in what it can deliver, BIHR's work shows how our Human Rights Act is an enabler.
Enabling the shifting of power between people, services, systems and institutions.
Enabling challenge.
Enabling change.
Enabling solidarity.
Enabling everyday justice.
Human Rights Matter: Now More Than Ever
In times of uncertainty, division, and crisis, it can be tempting to see human rights as optional. But we know from our work that human rights are a lifeline, especially for those facing disadvantage or injustice, and for us all.
At BIHR, we are committed to securing, promoting, and using human rights as a powerful force for positive social change. For everyone, every day.
Support our work
We're an independent human rights charity.
We rely on the support of people who want to ensure human rights here at home are respected, protected and fulfilled.
