Weekly Human Rights News: 16/08/2024

This week’s human rights news includes a reshare of some of BIHR’s resources such as our coproduced guide for young people with ATD UK and our explainer on how laws are made as well as a reminder about our exciting new advocacy training programme.     

Monday 12th August was International Youth Day and at BIHR we thought it was the perfect time to reshare our work with All Together in Dignity UK (ATD UK) as part of our Communities Programme in 2023. In collaboration with ATD UK’s Youth Voices Project , we created a resource that is geared towards young people to help them understand their human rights, and how they can use them to challenge decisions about their care and treatment, and what to do if their rights aren’t respected. The resource includes human rights flow charts, Easy Read options, and a letter template to use to have your rights respected. 

Teigan, one of the young people we worked win on the resource shared: 

"For me it was important to have a resource that supported young people in understanding their human rights, as it is such a crucial element for a young person to have the best day to day life experience. However the information is not always available for them in an accessible way, as knowing your human rights is taken for granted. Something I really wanted this document to be is accessible for young people but also for everyone, by using pictures, colours and accessible layout. I also liked the focus we made on some key rights that can be important for young people in certain circumstances including the right to housing and family. I know from personal experience the impact of not being aware of these or not knowing how to act on them. Which is another element that I really like about our resource: we show when and how a young person can act if they don’t feel like their rights are being respected. "

Parliament is on a break over the summer but there is a busy schedule planned from September, with almost 40 new measures announced in the Kings Speech. This is an ideal time to revisit our explainer about how laws are made.  

Join us for a series of three online sessions in autumn 2024, launching during Advocacy Awareness Week (14-18 October). These sessions will empower you with the knowledge and confidence to harness human rights law in your practice, be it working with survivors of domestic abuse or ensuring the voices of people with learning disabilities are heard. We will be focusing on:

• Interpreting other legislation through the lens of the Human Rights Act (HRA), with an emphasis on relevant legislation advocates use across all sectors, including mental health and safeguarding law.
• In-depth discussions of public bodies’ statutory duties, using real case studies.
• Utilising the language of the HRA to formally address issues with public bodies.

We will host an in-person networking and publicity event in early 2025 to consolidate and share learning while celebrating the invaluable work advocates do.

After just over a year at BIHR we are sadly saying goodbye to our Senior Human Rights Officer Charlotte Maguire who is leaving BIHR to pursue other opportunities. She will be missed and everyone at BIHR wishes her the best of luck for the future.  

Legal challenge to Birmingham City Council changes to school transport provision for 16-19 years olds with Special Educational Needs.  

The legal firm Irwin and Mitchell are supporting Sabiha Aziz to fight local council cuts to transport provision 16–19-year-olds which mean that from September, the family will receive a budget for their own travel arrangements instead of a minibus.  

Ms Aziz’s son Adam is autistic and has learning disabilities and epilepsy and has accessed school for 10 years via a council provided minibus and carer. He is not able to travel independently.  

Irwin Mitchell have submitted a formal letter before action to the council on Ms Aziz’s behalf. The letter argues that the council didn’t follow statutory guidance or comply with equality legislation when deciding on the level of support needed for Adam to access school.  

Solicitor Erika Wright from Irwin Mitchell said: "The council has a duty to provide a home-to-school transport policy to facilitate attendance at school. 

"We believe the new policy is unlawful because a personal transport budget doesn't meet the needs of learners with a high level of need, such as Adam." 

Ms Aziz said:  

"It feels like a very important fight. It shouldn't be the case that our disabled young people should lose out on their education, because the service has to save millions of pounds through no fault of our own." 

Source: BBC news: Birmingham special needs school travel plan unlawful - mum - BBC News 

Find out more about how our Human Rights Act is relevant for children and young people with special educational needs, in our blog series: Blog Series: Special Educational Needs & Disability Services (bihr.org.uk)