12 Days of Human Rights

On the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we’re joining the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) and over 75 other organisations who are calling on political leaders to protect human rights for everyone in the UK.

On World Human Rights Day, Sunday 10 December 2023, each organisation has signed the same open letter to the Prime Minister. The letter calls on all political leaders to reaffirm the commitment to universal human rights for all people, through both words and actions, nationally, in devolved nations, and in the small places close to home.

Read the letter and an Easy Read version on the BIHR website.

This blog from Nic Crosby, Lyn Griffiths and Amanda Nally explains why human rights is central to person centred planning.

Supporting and protecting human rights is a fundamental part of our Small Supports programme, which enables people in local areas to live where they choose and with whom they choose.

For day three of our campaign, Sam Smith, from our partner C-Change explains how human rights supports everyone.

Young people from our Time to Talk Next Steps programme discussed human rights at a meet up in London. They had three questions to discuss:

• What do they mean?
• Why do they matter?
• How can we use them?

Supporting and protecting human rights is an integral part of our leadership programmes. Human rights underpins a range of topics covered in each programme.

Our Next Generation Leadership Programme is joined by speakers from the British Institute of Human Rights and Learning Disability England (LDE). LDE's Good Lives Framework, which was co-created with people with lived experience, is underpinned by the Human Rights Act.

Find out more about our leadership programmes.

People with a learning disability and autistic people who are in inpatient mental health settings are one of the groups that are at highest risk of having their human rights infringed. Advocacy plays a key role in upholding and safeguarding people’s human rights.

Safeguarding people’s rights and entitlements is a key part of an advocate's work on a day-to-day basis and human rights underpins the work of independent advocates. Human rights provides a framework for advocates' practice as they support and work alongside people who access public services and particularly health and social care services. Put simply, independent advocates are human rights defenders.

Our recent advocacy review shows that when advocates and advocacy organisations aren’t adequately supported it’s much harder for advocates to be the human rights defenders they could be.

Read the summary report from our Review of Advocacy for people with a learning disability and autistic people who are inpatients in mental health, learning disability or autism specialist hospitals.

We host the Older People Sounding Board on behalf of NHS England. It's a great example of how one project can impact on our human rights on such a large scale. This board actively demonstrates one of the key human rights, the right to freedom of expression. Each member of this board has the opportunity to stand up for what they feel is right and voice their opinions on a wide range of health and care topics.

The board is made up from a diverse range of people across England and allows people to help shape health care for not only themselves, but all older people in a similar situation.

Together, the NHS and NDTi are trying to actively seek out older people whose voices are often silenced, and ensure that they are given a chance to speak up about life changing topics.

We're currently recruiting more people onto the sounding board. If you'd like to get involved, find out more here.

The Community Led Support programme is a transformative approach to social care, health and community support that is underpinned by and supports human rights in practice. It's based on a set of principles that underpin the simple ambition to ‘do the right thing’. It helps those of us who need support at any time in our lives to live well and as independently as possible, with purpose and connection.

We work alongside public services which have a legal duty to uphold human rights, including local authorities and NHS services, because of the Human Rights Act. We also work with their community partners and local people, many of whom interact with public services on a regular basis. Whether we are working with duty-bearers or rights-holders, human rights is at the centre of our approach.

In our report, Community Led Support Through a Human Rights Lens, we talk about four different rights and draw on examples of where we worked to implement positive and sustainable change.

Our research and evaluation team are involved in a wide range of projects. A recent report from Research and Evaluation Officer, Lauren Blood, and the 200 lives team, explores how much choice people with learning disabilities have get over where they live. The right to have an informed choice about where and with whom you live should be open to everyone, but this can sometimes be denied for people with a learning disability.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009, recognises that disabled people have the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing. Within the Care Act 2014, housing forms part of the definition of wellbeing for people who have care and support needs. Housing is also a priority for supporting people with learning disabilities to move out of long-stay hospitals.

Whilst many policies and initiatives highlight the ambition that people who draw on social care will have a good choice of housing and support options, the reality for many is starkly different. Read more about the research: How much choice do people with learning disabilities have about where they live?

Supported internships are a study programme for young people aged 16-24 with an Education, Health and Care Plan. The chance to take part in a supported internship not only supports a young person’s right to an education, it's also a pathway to ensure equal opportunities and access to employment.

The Internships Work programme aims to double the number of supported internships in England. The programme is funded by the Department of Education and delivered in partnership by NDTi, BASE and DFN Project SEARCH.

For day 11 we asked some of our team what human rights means to them. Here's what they said.

Upholding and protecting human rights is central to almost everything we work on. It plays a key role in our organisational strategy. Human rights are at the heart of our vision, to enable people to live the life they choose, regardless of age, disability, or other circumstances which put them at risk of exclusion.

Earlier in the year Annie Smith, our Community Led Support delivery lead, shared this blog, 'Driving change through human rights', which explains why human rights is so important to all of our work.