Advocacy Awareness Week 2024: The impact of human rights advocacy

This blog was originally written as part of NDTi's Advocacy Awareness Week 2024 campaign.

Advocacy Awareness Week is an annual celebration that shines the spotlight on advocacy work across the UK. Each year has a different theme and the theme for 2024 is Advocacy Works, with a focus on the impact of advocacy.

Peter was an informal patient at a London mental health hospital. Because he was there informally, Peter should have been allowed to leave the hospital whenever he liked. However, when he tried to leave the ward to visit his friends and sister, nurses stopped him, saying it was not in his best interests to leave. Peter’s Independent Mental Health Advocate, Rana, had been trained on the Human Rights Act by BIHR and wrote to the hospital explaining that this risked breaching Peter’s right to liberty. Since Peter was not a formal patient, stopping him from leaving essentially meant staff were detaining him without any of the normal safeguards. After Rana raised this as a human rights issue, the nurses were clear that Peter was able to come and go and supported him to do so. His relationship with them improved and so did his mental health; he was discharged shortly after.

Without the support of an advocate who was confident using the language of human rights law, Peter’s story could have been very different. At BIHR, we hear stories like this every day – where Human Rights Act advocacy changes people’s lives for the better.

We’ve made it our mission to share these stories, to encourage and empower more people across the UK to speak up for the human rights that they and the people they support are legally entitled to. This is a mission close to the heart of our Policy & Programmes Lead Katrin, who worked as an advocate before joining BIHR.

“I think probably the most important thing that I wish I’d had when I was an advocate is hearing those stories of change, understanding all the different ways in which people have used the Human Rights Act to make things better for themselves or for the people that they love or work with…for me, as an advocate, if I’d been more aware of [those stories], it would have given me much more confidence to ask questions and to challenge knowing that other people had already successfully done that.”

Hear more from Katrin on what she’s learned since working at BIHR that she wished she knew as an advocate, and what her advice would be to current advocates who want to use the Human Right Act in their work.

In our experience, building this confidence is key in supporting advocates to use human rights law to make real change. For example, after taking part in our Rights in Recovery Leadership programme, community advocates based across Scotland reported increased understanding of and confidence using the Human Rights Act. As a result, 75% said they were more likely to take actions to uphold people’s rights by supporting them to be involved in decisions about their lives. They shared their own stories of steps they’ve already taken to put human rights into action, including securing a doctor’s visit for a client who had been detained without access to his prescribed medication; and successfully challenging a decision to move a client away from his home in supported accommodation.

The Rights in Recovery Leadership Programme is tailored to advocates working in lived experience recovery organisations across Scotland – but we’ve heard similar success stories from advocates working in a wide variety of sectors and regions across the UK. Fairuz, Programme Manager at Hopscotch Women’s Centre in London, told us: “We haven't had to go to court because as soon as we cite the Human Rights Act articles and how it's affecting the person, within two days, [the relevant public authority will] come back with a positive answer.” Helen, former CEO of advocacy charity POhWER, said: “Thanks to the Human Rights Act and advocates, we are able to challenge public institutions that support us in our everyday lives.”

This universality of human rights – the fact that they belong to us all – is what makes them such a powerful tool for advocates of all types. The Human Rights Act applies to all our interactions with public services and places a legal duty on all public body workers to respect, protect and fulfil human rights as far as possible. By speaking up for the human rights of the people they support, advocates are not asking for favours or special treatment but asking for the law to be upheld.

To help more advocates harness human rights law in their practice, BIHR is now running a three-part short course on Enhancing Human Rights through Advocacy. Beginning this week, the course focuses on interpreting other laws through the lens of the Human Rights Act; utilising the language of the Human Rights Act to address issues with public bodies; and, of course, sharing real-life stories of human rights in action.

We’ll be sharing the impact of the course and the stories of change from our participants in early 2025. To get the latest plus regular updates on BIHR’s work, sign up to our monthly eNewsletter. To find out more about human rights training for advocates, visit our website or get in touch on training@bihr.org.uk.

More stories of human rights advocacy in action

A caseworker from the British Red Cross used the advocacy guide BIHR co-produced with Room to Heal in their work. They challenged a Local Authority that was refusing to use interpreters for clients who didn’t speak English and were trying to make a homelessness application. The caseworker told us, “by using your guide and making the Local Authority aware that they may breach the Human Rights Act [right to be free from discrimination], interpreting access was then offered and the clients were able to fairly apply for their entitlements”.

Balbir lived in a small council house with two teenage sons. She suffered a stroke that left her with severe physical disabilities and was no longer able to use the stairs to reach her bathroom, which was upstairs. The local authority refused to build a bathroom downstairs and told her to strip-wash in the kitchen and use a commode in her living room. Balbir found this humiliating – especially as this is where the family spent time together. Tim, Balbir’s advocate, told the Local Authority that they were putting Balbir’s human right to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment at risk. The Local Authority then carried out an assessment of her needs which resulted in a downstairs bathroom being built.

A Local Authority had a policy of providing school transport for children with special educational needs living more than three miles from their school. Sarah, a young girl with learning disabilities, lived 2.8 miles from the specialist school she attended. Despite being unable to travel on her own, she was advised by the Local Authority that she should instead take two buses to and from school each day. An independent advocate who had attended a BIHR training session supported Sarah’s mum to challenge the decision using human rights language. Sarah’s mum approached the headteacher and explained that the transport decision was a disproportionate interference with her daughter’s right to respect for private life, given the failure to consider her individual circumstances. The headteacher took the issue to the Local Authority, and the decision was reversed. Sarah was provided with transport to and from school from then on, making a real difference to her life.

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