Weekly Human Rights News: 28/03/25

This week’s human rights news includes a celebration event with UK community groups, practical human rights training for senior mental health practitioners and nursing staff, and judgments from the European Court of Human Rights and the UK High Court.

On 20 March 2025, we hosted an online event to celebrate BIHR’s UK-wide community programme 2022-2025. This programme has allowed BIHR to provide community and voluntary groups with opportunities for free practical support to use the Human Rights Act to tackle issues affecting them. This event was an exciting opportunity to share the positive impact of the programme (including a brand new video with snippets from our partner organisations across this exciting work) as well as to look ahead at what BIHR’s future community programme might look like.

During the event, people from several community groups shared their reflections on working with us during the programme and the wider impact it has had on their work. For example, one group shared that taking part in the programme helped them to use human rights-based approaches to challenge policies that prevent asylum seekers from accessing employment. Speaking of the importance of the community programme, another community group shared that it is “essential to help the most vulnerable people in our communities to be able to advocate for their human rights and improve their lives.”

This week we delivered a workshop for NHS Nursing Equality and Involvement, providing a practical introduction to the Human Rights Act (HRA) for their work. In particular we explored the HRA legal duties on staff in public authorities to respect, protect and fulfil human rights, and the legal duty to apply other laws through the lens of the HRA. This led to thinking about how UK human rights law can be harnessed both in frontline decision-making within services supporting people, and in internal and external policies.

When asked about their main takeaways from the session on the HRA, one of the participants told us: "it applies in more areas than people may consider and need to be mindful of impact in producing policies / guidance intended for external or internal use in NHS."

Last week we caught up with participants for the second workshop in BIHR’s new open course for senior mental health practitioners: ‘Embedding Human Rights Legal Duties in the Delivery of Mental Health Care’. We focused on some important human rights in mental health inpatient care, including the right to liberty (Article 5), the right to life (Article 2) and the right to non-discrimination (Article 14), with examples of how different rights work together and can be balanced to reduce restrictive practice and support recovery.

Next week we’ll be returning for the third and final workshop where participants will apply frameworks to guide a human rights-based approach in mental health care and reflect on how they can embed the HRA legal duties and lens when working with the Mental Health Act.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on a UK human rights case

This week, the European Court of Human Rights (EctHR) - which decides if human rights have been violated across 46 countries - handed down a judgment today on a situation that happened in the UK. The legal case was brought by a single mother with a history of mental health support needs, who believed her right to respect for private and family life (Article 8) had been breached when an adoption order was made for one of her children.

The mother had been detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act and the local authority started care proceedings for her two children, then aged 2 and 11. After she was discharged from hospital, the children were returned to her care but when her condition worsened they were taken into care again. The children were placed with separate foster carers and the mother could see them for one hour a week. The family court did not grant the mother’s request for a guardianship order for her youngest child, instead eventually granting an adoption order.

The ECtHR said the mother’s right to family life had not been violated. It said that the adoption order was justified as the judge in family court had given clear reasons that this was necessary to meet the child’s needs, had based decisions on a recent parenting assessment, and the mother had been able to fully participate in the proceedings. The older child was returned to their mother’s care.

Read the judgment.

Find out more about the European Court of Human Rights.

The High Court dismissed a human rights claim by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, is a far-right activist who is currently at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes. Yaxley-Lennon was jailed for 18 months after breaching a court order which had directed him not to repeat false claims about a Syrian refugee. He has been placed in segregation, but is allowed time out of his cell, can speak to prison staff, and can still have contact with friends and family.

Yaxley-Lennon brought a human rights claim this month, arguing that his treatment in prison breaches several rights in the HRA, including the right to be free from torture and inhuman and degrading treatment (Article 3). The judge ruled that Yaxley-Lennon’s claims were not arguable. There was evidence that Yaxley-Lennon had previously had conflict with Muslim prisoners, and that prison governors were aware of potential threats to harm or kill him. The judge found no evidence that segregation being used to ‘break’ him, but that this was for his own protection as well as the safety of other prisoners and staff, and it did not amount to solitary confinement.

Read the judgment.