Weekly Human Rights News: 13/12/2024

This week was Human Rights Day 2024! We marked the occasion with an event in the House of Lords, the launch of four new human rights resources, and an open letter to the Prime Minister signed by 70+ civil society groups from across the UK.

On Tuesday 10^th December, we celebrated Human Rights Day in the House of Lords together with community groups, parliamentarians and civil society representatives from across the UK. The event was a celebration of everyday human rights, and an opportunity to hear the real stories of people who have used human rights in their lives and work to change things for the better.

Six groups who have worked with us as part of our multi-year Community Programme spoke to attendees about co-producing human rights resources, as well as reflecting on the longer term impact of human rights advocacy. We also heard from Lord Ponsonby, Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice, who spoke about the importance of protecting human rights across the UK so that they can, in turn, protect all of us. Finally, our CEO, Sanchita, talked about the importance of supporting this work with communities and shared words from one of BIHR’s core funders, AB Charitable Trust.

At the end of the event, our host and BIHR Trustee Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson invited everyone to sign up to the Human Rights Action Plan. The Action Plan was co-produced with BIHR’s RITES Committee and sets out practical and tangible steps we can all take every day to champion a human rights culture across the UK.

Stay tuned for a full write-up of the event.

Throughout 2024, we’ve been busy working with four community groups to co-design human rights resources to support them in their work. These resources were launched at our Human Rights Day event and are all now available on our website.

The resources include:

• An Easy Read human rights card game to support adults with learning disabilities to understand their rights
• A pocket-sized guide to human rights and housing for women seeking asylum and refuge in Northern Ireland
• A booklet on human rights advocacy for women seeking asylum and refuge and accessing public services in the UK
• A written guide and accompanying videos for families, carers and supporters accessing special educational needs and disability services

We co-ordinated an open letter to the Prime Minister and political leaders, calling on them to stand up for the human rights of everyone in the UK.

As well as marking Human Rights Day, the letter recognises the 75^th anniversary of the Council of Europe – the organisation responsible for the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and of which the UK was a founding member. The letter recognises the formation of the Council of Europe and the ECHR as marking “a coming together of countries across Europe to solidify their commitment to the UDHR and to protecting universal human rights.” As the letter says, “This is the same system that makes human rights real not just on the international stage but in all the many communities that form the beating heart of the UK."

The letter is also available in an Easy Read version and a video version, created with the kind support from members of our RITES Committee and Pembrokeshire People First, Bomoko NI, All Wales People First, Cwm Taf People First, Parent & Carer Alliance CIC and Learning Disability England.