Weekly Human Rights News: 01-03-24

This week, our CEO Sanchita joined Just Fair for their Everyday Rights Conversation Series, looking at a route to a better UK by bringing economic, social and cultural rights into domestic law. The conversation series brings together a range of people and organisations to discuss the issue and develop ideas on the practicalities of how this can be achieved across the UK. The event focused on rights knowledge, and Sanchita joined a panel of presenters to discuss the importance of ensuring those with duties to uphold human rights have the knowledge and confidence to do so. This includes national to local government, social workers to police and teachers to healthcare professionals. Find out more about those who have human rights duties in our explainer.

Also on the panel were Kate, Anmol and Elena. Kate, from Just Fair, set out their research and framework for these conversations. Anmol, a children’s human rights defender, discussed her lived experience of rights knowledge and the work she now does with young people. Elena, from the United Nations Human Rights Office, shared the principles for effective human rights education and what has been shown to work internationally. Presentations and other resources shared during the discussion will be available on Just Fair’s resource webpage soon.

On Wednesday 28^th February, we delivered a workshop to Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust for their prevention of violence and aggression team and other inpatient services. The workshop focused on human rights and restrictive practice, supporting staff to recognise when restrictive practice could be a human rights issue. At the end of the session, we asked whether staff would recommend the session to a colleague. They said: "Yes, it was really engaging and informative, brilliantly relevant and focused for a variety of healthcare professionals."

If you're interested in a workshop for your team on restrictive practice, you can enquire about our training below.

Check out our new blog from Human Rights Officer and former SENDIASS Advisor, Phoebe. This is the first in a new blog series looking at the ways the Human Rights Act can be used as a tool for advocacy in relation to special educational needs and disabilities.

"There is a lot of value in understanding and actively using human rights legislation, it empowers parents and young people when trying to secure the right support for them. Sometimes parents will raise that a decision that impacts their child feels like it is against their human rights, but don’t feel empowered enough to explain exactly why, don’t know they can raise it or don’t necessarily know how.

If you want to know more about the detail of human rights law, or want to know how to use human rights when raising issues – this blog series is for you."

People seeking asylum are taking the Home Office to court over the use of a military site as accommodation

Four people seeking asylum in the UK are taking the Home Office to court after they were forced to live at RAF Wethersfield – a repurposed military site. The Home Secretary started accommodating people at RAF Wethersfield in July 2023 and says he plans to transfer up to 1700 people there and continue to use it as asylum accommodation for three years.

The people bringing the claim say that the Home Office used RAF Wethersfield to accommodate people in vulnerable positions, including survivors of modern slavery and people with significant mental or physical health issues. They said that there is inadequate healthcare at the site, as well as significant restrictions on their movements and communication.

They are arguing that the Home Secretary failed to provide dignified standards of living and are at risk of breaching people’s human rights.

 Source: DPG Law