Free Human Rights Workshops

We received funding from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Tudor Trust, the Bromley Trust, Comic Relief (Covid fund) and the Three Guineas Trust. We started by delivering 27 workshops to 16 different organisations, including:

• Disability Wales – we looked how human rights are protected in Wales and what it means when accessing care and support during Covid-19 and beyond.
• Learning Disability England – we looked at human rights and visiting policies, supporting people to raise human rights challenges.
• Scottish Autism – we supported people, loved ones and parents to know more about human rights, particularly the right to education and the right to family life.
• Reducing Restraint Network – we looked at human rights and social distancing.
• Tide – we supported Tide unpaid carers with separate sessions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to understand their rights, particularly in home care provision.
• Inclusion Gloucestershire – we supported people with physical disabilities and learning disabilities to know their rights and use them to create change in their lives.
• Bristol Reclaiming Independent Living – we ran a BSL interpreted session to support people to use human rights to challenge local policies, we focused on personal assistants/loved ones being able to join health care appointments during Covid19. 
• Croydon Mencap – we supported people with learning disabilities and/or autism, loved ones and carers to know more about human rights, particularly the right to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment and the right to family life.
• Bromley & Croydon Women's Aid Coffee Morning - we supported a women's group to know more about the rights of people who have experienced domestic abuse, and showed them our new tool to support people with this.

Then, in May 2021, we invited community groups and organisations to apply for our 10 final workshop spaces. We were thrilled to hear from 34 groups in total, hailing from all over the UK, across the public, private and voluntary sector, and supporting people in a variety of situations, from people experiencing homelessness, to carers for people living with dementia.

We carefully selected 10 new partner organisations from across the UK:

1. The Alliance for Inclusive Education
2. Bristol Somali Resource Centre
3. Cheshire Disabled People’s Panel
4. dates-n-mates Scotland
5. Friends, Families and Travellers
6. HERe NI
7. Northern Ireland Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women’s Association (Bomoko NI)
8. Rock Trust
9. Silverline Memories
10. Welsh Refugee Council

These organisations support a range of different people and groups, including refugees and people seeking asylum; LGBTQ+ people; people with disabilities and their loved ones; Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities; and young people with experience of homelessness.

Over the summer, BIHR ran 10 bespoke human rights workshops alongside these wonderful organisations. In total, 159 people attended the workshops, building their knowledge and confidence to talk about their human rights when supporting people accessing or trying to access public services. Knowledge is power!

Following the success of the pilot workshops, we ran another round of awareness-raising workshops in 2023. We worked with:

• Pembrokeshire People First
• Dates-n-mates
• Poverty Action Network
• Joining the Dots Parent Carers Wales
• Asian Community Concern

In 2024, we expanded our reach to offer free human rights workshops to 15 community groups across 14 workshops. This included:

• Aberdeen in Recovery (this workshop was also attended by Caithness Family Support Group)
• Allies for Justice & Families for Justice
• Association for Young People’s Health
• ATD Fourth World
• Awesta Charitable Organisation
• Bristol Reclaiming Independent Living
• Bristol Refugee and Asylum Seeker Partnership
• Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support
• Dudley Voices for Choice
• People First Dorset
• Rochdale Women’s Welfare Association
• Supported Loving
• The Traveller Movement
• Wyeside Arts Centre

The aim of this project was to support people accessing, or trying to access, public services, as well as their loved ones and those who care about them, to know about and use human rights in their conversations with public officials.

The data gathered across all the groups we worked with evidences that the knowledge and confidence of attendees in using human rights increased significantly. Our pilot workshops in particular were delivered at a time when the aftershocks of the pandemic were still being keenly felt. Having lived through this period where we have seen human rights put at risk, supporting people to recognise where human rights are relevant, and use them to create positive change in their lives and the lives of their loved ones, has never been more important.

We are committed to continuing to support people and their communities to know about their human rights and have the confidence to talk about and advocate for their rights in everyday situations where they interact with public bodies.

We are now pleased to be able to run annual Awareness-Raising workshops from 2022 - 2025, kindly funded by the Baring Foundation.