Weekly Human Rights News: 30/08/2024

This week’s human rights news includes the final blog in our series on Special Educations Needs and Disabilities, BIHR human rights training for advocates starting in October, and a legal case heading to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge a gap in the law for survivors of sexual abuse.

This week we published our final instalment of the Special Educational Needs & Disabilities and human rights blog series. This last edition ties together how human rights can be used as an additional tool to ensure that children and families are getting the help, support and access to services that they are entitled to. It includes resources such as: 

• A template for recording human rights issues;
• An example of a letter to a local authority about a potential human rights issue;
• A co-produced template (made alongside Sheffield SENDIASS) to support people to write a letter themselves; and
• A detailed breakdown on how else people can raise human rights issues.

The blog series as a whole is designed as a comprehensive tool to empower parents, supporters and advocates to get informed on how human rights protect SEND children and their families, with each blog focusing on a specific right and issue. The series was created by Human Rights Officers with experience working in SENDIASS tribunals and also features a guest blog from Catriona Moore, RITES Committee member and Head of Policy at the Independent Provider of Special Educational Advice (IPSEA).

At BIHR, we recognise the transformative role of specialised training in enabling advocates to ensure public bodies uphold their statutory human rights duties. Therefore, we want to empower advocates across a range of fields with human rights knowledge by running an online training programme over three interactive workshops, beginning in this year’s Advocacy Awareness Week (14-18 October). Having won the 2023 National Advocacy Award for Best Support of Advocates, we believe our programme will enable transformative change and support everyday justice.

Individuals and advocacy organisations can apply for spaces on the course until Monday 16 September by sending us an Expression of Interest. For more information about this training offer, please email us at training@bihr.org.uk.

We are very excited to being joined by our new Senior Manager who starts work at BIHR next week. More information to follow!

Please be aware that the external human rights news BIHR shares weekly contains difficult and potentially triggering issues. This week’s triggers include a case involving child sexual abuse.

Gap in UK law affecting survivors of sexual abuse will be taken to the European Court of Human Rights

Between 1986 and 1989, a woman had been sexually abused by a man when she was 13 to 15 years old. She did not report this at the time, but in 2023 following the death of her parents she decided to report what had happened to Devon and Cornwall Police. However, despite the fact that the abuser admitted to having sex with her when she was underage, the police decided they could not prosecute him due a specific section of the law which applies to sexual abuse which took place between 1956 and 2004. The Sexual Offences Act 1956 put a 12-month time-limit on girls (not boys) to report an alleged offence of unlawful sexual intercourse, meaning the woman is currently unable to pursue the conviction of her abuser.

The woman is applying to the European Court of Human Rights arguing that the 12-month time-limit breaches her human rights. The main rights being raised are the right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment (Article 3), the right to a private life (Article 8), and the right to be free from discrimination (Article 14) as it is only females who are affected by this gap in the law. Her lawyers will argue that the UK has a positive obligation to protect these rights by ensuring the law punishes all forms of rape and sexual abuse, and that this is not happening.

Source: Leigh Day

Ombudsman criticises local authority for failing to effectively support teenager in transition from children’s to adult services

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found failings in Devon County Council’s actions relating to an autistic young person with ADHD and anxiety as they approached his 18^th birthday. The council left the planning for the teenager’s transition from children’s to adult services very late, to the point where he was almost made homeless. He had been forced to move from the children’s home where he had been living to supported accommodation 30 miles away, negatively affecting his relationship with his mother and his education. Devon County Council has apologised to the young person and his mother for the distress and disruption caused, and they are committed to learning from what happened.

Relevant to this story is the right to respect for private and family life (Article 8). This is a non-absolute right in the Human Rights Act which protects our autonomy, our wellbeing and our relationships with others, and can only be limited by a public body if the decision is lawful, for a legitimate aim, and proportionate.

Source: Local Government Lawyer