Weekly Human Rights News: 23-06-23

AdFest is an annual learning disability conference hosted during Learning Disability Week by All Wales People First – a united voice of self-advocacy groups and people with learning disabilities in Wales. This year, our CEO, Sanchita Hosali, attended and spoke about the importance of protecting our Human Rights Act. She also shared our Easy Read resources and met with other groups and organisations that use our Human Rights Easy Read postcards in their work.

To mark Pride Month 2023, we’re pleased to be able to share two new Get Informed pages focused on LGBT+ rights and the way the Human Rights Act can and has been used for advocacy. Our pages focus on key rights including the right to private life and the right to be free from discrimination, as well as the obligation placed on public bodies to respect, protect and fulfil rights.

Find out about the Human Rights Act and LGBT+ rights.

Find out organisations’ duties related to LGBT+ rights.

The Council of Europe adopted its report on UK human rights reform

On Thursday 25^th May, Rapporteur Kamal Jafarov published his draft report on UK human rights reform. On Tuesday 21^st June (one year on from when the Rights Removal Bill was first introduced to Parliament), the report was adopted (agreed) by the full Parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe. All UK representatives who voted on the report voted in favour of adopting it.

Read more about the report and our work with Council of Europe.

A man in prison was given permission to marry his girlfriend

55-year-old Levi Bellfield is serving two whole-life orders in prison. He applied to marry his girlfriend but this was refused by the prison governor. Under Article 12 of the Human Rights Act, the right to marry can only be interfered with if it is lawful, legitimate and proportionate. While the UK Government is trying to ban people who are serving whole-life prison sentences from getting married through the Victims and Prisoners Bill, there is not currently a law preventing people in prison getting married. After Levi decided to bring a human rights case, his application was granted so he will be able to marry.

Source: The Independent