Weekly Human Rights News: 06-10-23

On Wednesday 4^th October, Restraint Reduction Network hosted a conference on Positive Cultures & Relational Working. Our CEO, Sanchita, was invited to speak and discussed the importance of the Human Rights Act in reducing restraint. As she explained, “human rights are not a battle of morals. People have rights and there are duties. It’s about law rather than optional extras…human rights are for everyone”.

If you work in health or care in the UK and you'd like to come along to a free "Human Rights in Practice Conversation", our next event is on the 11th October and we'll be covering restraint. Click below to register your interest. 

The Human Rights Act places duties on both core and hybrid public bodies, which includes private organisations carrying out “functions of a public nature”. This week, we ran a workshop with staff at a private healthcare provider covering the duties and key rights under the Human Rights Act and how these intersect with other laws like the Mental Health Act. We asked: 

"After our workshop, how important or relevant do you think the Human Rights Act is to your life and/or work?"

100% of respondents answered, "Very important or relevant." 

If you work in mental health services and would like to organise some training for your team or colleagues, click the button below to find out more or email training@bihr.org.uk. 

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission began a legal challenge to the Illegal Migration Act

National human rights institutions, like the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC), have a unique power to bring legal challenges under the Human Rights Act without reference to an individual victim – as long as there is or would be one or more victims of the act they’re challenging. The NIHRC have used this power to begin a legal challenge against the Secretary of State for the Home Department and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. They argue that the recently passed Illegal Migration Act risks violating the human rights of displaced people. They also say that the Act is incompatible with the Windsor Framework – an agreement between the European Union and the UK that says the UK Government must make sure there is no weakening of the human rights protections in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.

Source: Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

The Scottish International Storytelling Festival’s 2023 theme is “Right to be Human”

In honour of the upcoming 75^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Scottish International Storytelling Festival invited artists to respond to the prompt, “right to be human”. The festival runs from 13^th to 29^th October in Edinburgh with pieces looking at both UK and international human rights.

Source: The National