Human Rights Day 2024: A Day for Celebration

It's been a few years since I've been able to say I'm genuinely looking forward to being in celebration mode for Human Rights Day! When we’d rather be doing the work, the political climate over the last 4 years (though it tracks far further back) has meant having to defend the very existence of the law that protects everyone's rights, our Human Rights Act.

In many ways the Human Rights Act has been under threat for most of its 26-year existence. By their nature, human rights laws challenge governments, setting limits on power. It takes robust political leadership for officials to be able to acknowledge that no one, including themselves and their institutions, are not above the law. Sadly, this approach at home has often been lacking, irrespective of the party (or parties) in charge. In recent years, the continual political pummelling of the Human Rights Act culminated in a UK government vigorously pursuing its repeal. They attempted to replace it with a jumbled assortment of half measures magnanimously gifted to some, not all, of us, under the pretence of a "bill of rights" more accurately labelled a Rights Removal Bill. Essentially, and disastrously, this would have disconnected people across the UK from universal human rights. The very rights written down on this day, following 2 World Wars, part of a global commitment to rules for the exercise of public power, including in democracies.

The threat of scrapping the Human Rights Act was seen off. The frequent shuffling that characterised the last years of the previous government resulted in a Justice Secretary who realised this was perhaps not the wisest move in the face of strong resistance. As the dust settles and we look back, some argue, “well of course it never would have happened, it was all political noise, just smoke and mirrors.” Easy to say now.

Less so when you look into the eyes of a parent whose autistic child is put in handcuffs to be moved between floors of the hospital where he is detained for care and treatment. Or the person with learning disabilities who discovers they have had a Do Not Resuscitate order placed on their medical files without so much as a conversation, all because they're disabled. Or the woman who has been subjected to horrific domestic abuse, left with trauma and refused housing. Or indeed the staff in public services placed in impossible positions, applying policies that refuse support to those in need, or waiting until the crisis is so high that only the most restrictive and arbitrary intervention is possible. These are the everyday people, their situations and stories we're working with at the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR). For so many people, in all too familiar situations that could be you or those you care about, it is the Human Rights Act which provides the safety net. The ability to challenge, to secure change, to make sure the basics of dignity and respect aren't just wishful thinking but can be made reality. These stories will rarely make headlines, but they are what matters to each and every one of us.

And this Human Rights Day, at BIHR we're shining a spotlight on our Human Rights Act matters to all of us, in communities across the UK. In Parliament, BIHR will be joined by community groups from Northern Ireland, the Midlands, Wales, London and the Southwest, all speaking up loudly about how we're using the Human Rights Act together for positive social change. The Parent & Carer Alliance for families of disabled children; Hopscotch Women’s Centre and African Women Empowerment Forum for Black and minoritised women; All Wales People First and Cwm Taf People First for people with learning disabilities; Bomoko NI for women and children seeking refuge. For us all.

The new government's Minister with responsibility for Human Rights, Lord Ponsonby, will be joining us to open the event. And that’s to be celebrated; this ministerial engagement is also something else that's not happened in several years. We're very much hoping that the Minister takes heed of the message not just from the community groups in parliament, but the more than 70 others representing people and concerns all over the UK, who joined our Human Rights Day letter to the Prime Minister and political leaders calling for a genuine commitment to what it means to uphold universal human rights. We all need those in positions of public power to meet their duties to each of us.

Words are a good place to start, they have been sorely lacking these past years, but we also need action. We need a government brave to enough to commit to the aim of the Human Rights Act, passed with cross-parliamentary support, to enable a culture of respect for human rights across the UK. One where human rights and duties are the golden thread running through every person's interaction with public power; that’d be a real milestone.