Weekly News 07/03/2025

On Wednesday we welcomed a group of senior practitioners working across mental health services to the first of three online workshops exploring how the Human Rights Act legal duties can be embedded in the delivery of mental health care. The first session was co-delivered with Kirsten Peebles, a lived experience expert whose son was held in mental health hospitals as a teenager and was subject to restrictive practices. 

For the first session, we heard from practitioners working in a range of roles across different types of mental health services, and began to understand what human rights are, how they are protected by law in the UK, and why they matter in the context of mental health services. Kirsten also talked through the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence (Article 8) and the right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment (Article 3) particularly in relation to preventing harm and restrictive practice, with a story to illustrate how participants might think about those rights in their work. 

This week our CEO Sanchita joined the ACEVOFest - the annual conference of the Association of CEOs of Voluntary Sector Organisations. She chaired a session on "where does activism fit in a new world and how do civil society leaders organise to influence and build power for change". Sanchita was joined by Ben Gilchrist, CEO at CARITAS Shrewsbury, Tom Brake, Director at Unlock Democracy, and Matthew Bolton, Executive Director at Citizens UK. The panel discussed what social action and change looks like locally, regionally and nationally, and taking this forward following the 2024 general election and the bedding down of the new UK government and parliament. Sanchita drew on BIHR's experience of navigating the challenges of practical action in communities, and at the policy level, using the Human Rights Act. A key lesson from the session was, no matter at what level you're working at, or the issue, the need to plan for small wins to keep morale and hope up, to think about what's winnable in the medium term, and the ambition to drive forward longer term positive change. 

The High Court decides that the supervision of an elderly woman’s relationship with her husband is a proportionate restriction on their Article 8 right to a private and family life, home and correspondence.  

The High Court heard a case that involved FH, who was an 81-year-old woman with a range of health conditions including dementia, cancer and multiple sclerosis. MH is her husband of several decades. FH has capacity to make decisions about where she lives and who she has contact with. There have been ongoing safeguarding concerns regarding emotional and physical abuse of MH towards FH in their home. FH had later moved into a care home where staff also expressed concerns about abuse from MH - preventing care home staff from administering medication, losing his temper and intervening in conversations between FH and her carers. Carers have been supervising visits between FH and MH, but FH says she loves her husband and finds this intrusive. 

Despite FH having the capacity to make decisions about her relationship with MH, the judge relied ‘inherent jurisdiction’ to decide that supervising FH’s contact with MH was a proportionate restriction on her right to a private and family life, home and correspondence. This was to protect FH from her husband’s abusive behaviour. 

Inherent Jurisdiction is a legal power of the High Court that can be used where an adult is deemed to have capacity but is considered vulnerable to influences that prevent them from being able to make their own free choices, such as coercion or abuse. 

BIHR’s CEO Sanchita will be joining the Parent and Carer Alliance on 18th March at Wheatstone Hall, Gloucester to hold a training session on using the Human Rights Act to advocate for your children and family. You will receive a copy of the advocacy guide BIHR and PCA developed together as part of our Community Programme. The workshop will support parents and carers to understand the legal duties of local authorities, health services, schools and others to respect, protect, and fulfil people's human rights. And there will be coffee and cake!