Weekly Human Rights News: 01-12-23

We’re working with Scottish Recovery Consortium on the Rights in Recovery Leadership Programme, designed to advance awareness on rights-based addiction recovery in Scotland. On Thursday 30^th November, Senior Human Rights Officer Annie led the latest workshop which focused on involvement in decisions and human rights in advocacy.

SENDIASS stands for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support Services. These services offer advice and information to children and young people with disabilities or special educational needs and their families. On Wednesday 29^th November, Human Rights Officer Phoebe, who has three years working in SENDIASS, led a workshop for managers and staff focusing on the human rights more relevant for their work. After the workshop, 90% of attendees said they felt more positive about the Human Rights Act with one saying, “now I also appreciate how we could add a human rights issue to an existing challenge".

Please be aware that the external human rights news BIHR shares weekly contains difficult and potentially triggering issues. This week’s triggers include immigration detention and medication issues.

The Home Office admitted it breached a man’s right to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment

In November 2022, power went out at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre and residents were forced to evacuate. The Home Office had been warned about the risk of the power failure ahead of time but had not done anything to fix the problem or plan for an emergency. Some residents with serious medical conditions were left without water and kept on a bus for over 24 hours. One man was not provided with his HIV medication. The Home Office admitted that this breached his Article 3 right to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment.

Source: Garden Court Chambers