A UK-wide charity making positive change through human rights

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Free information and resources

Your rights

Find out about the 16 rights protected by the UK's Human Rights Act.

What rights do I have?

Organisations' duties

Find out how human rights apply in areas such as health and social care, migrant and refugee rights and more.

Where do organisations duties apply?

Real-life stories

Read about the ways people across the UK have used the Human Rights Act to bring about positive change.

The Human Rights Act in Real Life

Resources

Get access to all our tools, guides and posters including co-produced resources.

Resources

Work with us

We offer one-off workshops, lunch-and-learn series, event talks and long-term programmes designed to help you embed human rights in all your work.

Individuals & Communities

Our workshops for individuals and grassroots community groups are designed to help you use the language of human rights law in your advocacy and bring about positive change in your life and the lives of the people you support.

Book our community training

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Public Bodies & Service Providers

Anyone carrying out a public function (like healthcare, social care and regulation) has legal duties under the Human Rights Act. Our programmes support you to understand and implement these duties.

Book training for public bodies and service providers

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Open Courses

We offer spaces for individuals to join an open course on human rights tailored to specific areas and issues. Build your human rights knowledge and confidence and create networks with people doing the same.

Book on to our mental health and human rights short course

What we've been working on

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Read about what proposed changes to mental health law could mean for people's right to liberty, right to private life, right to be free from discrimination and more. See what we've been doing to ensure lived experience voices are heard.

The Mental Health Bill

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Section 6 of the Human Rights Act puts a duty on everyone carrying out a public function to protect human rights. Find out about the work we're doing to make sure people's rights are equally protected when public services are outsourced to private organisations.

Human rights in practice

We're working with four London-based community groups over four years to support them to embed human rights in their work. Read about the ways they're using the Human Rights Act to improve local services including migration, housing, children's centres and more. 

Our London communities programme

Our RITES Committee (standing for real-life insights, tips, experiences and stories) is a co-production group made up of experts by experience who have used our Human Rights Act to achieve change – for themselves, the people they work with or their loved ones.

The RITES Committee

Our impact

Find out about the difference we're making through our human rights programmes:

Impact: The Mental Health Bill 2024-25

Read about the impact of our work on the Mental Health Bill to amplify lived experience expertise and shore up human rights protections for people accessing care.

Impact: The Mental Health Bill 2024-25

Read about the impact of our work on the Mental Health Bill to amplify lived experience expertise and shore up human rights protections for people accessing care.

Impact: The International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights

Read about the impact of our staff and Lived Experience Experts attending the 140th session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva.

Impact: The International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights

Read about the impact of our staff and Lived Experience Experts attending the 140th session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva.

Impact: LYPFT Human Rights Programme

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Read about the impact of our staff capacity-building sessions and Practice Lead programme with Leeds & York Partnership Foundation Trust.
Photo focused on a young woman, smiling, with a megaphone.

Impact: LYPFT Human Rights Programme

Read about the impact of our staff capacity-building sessions and Practice Lead programme with Leeds & York Partnership Foundation Trust.

What we do

At BIHR, we're all about making human rights real for people across the UK. Working with individuals, community groups, public bodies and policy-makers, we shine a light on the way the Human Rights Act can be put into practice and make a positive change in all our lives.

In 2024 alone:

800+

We trained 800+ staff across care, housing and health on their Human Rights Act legal duties, from frontline workers through to senior leads, Boards and commissioners.

24

We supported 24 community and grassroots group across the UK to understand and use human rights in tackling injustice; from racial justice to disability discrimination, from children & young people's groups to migration organisations. Human rights are universal and so is BIHR's work.

250+

We co-led knowledge-building sessions with over 250 charities and civil society organisations to support them to use human rights law in their work.

Read more about what we do

News & Blogs

Get the latest updates on our work and UK human rights news:

News

We’re changing how we share news from BIHR’s work and elsewhere

Find out more about how you can keep up to date on BIHR's work and the latest human rights news in the UK.

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News

Weekly Human Rights News: 08/08/2025

This week’s news includes our short course for staff working in mental health services and a letter from the Scottish Human Rights Consortium on protest rights.

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News

Weekly Human Rights News: 25/07/2025

In the news this week, we reflect on the successes of our recent programmes as they break for the summer. 

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Blog

Why our Human Rights Act Matters...as a beacon of protection for us all

Former President of the European Court of Human Rights Sir Nicolas Bratza reflects on 25 years of the Human Rights Act as he steps down from his role as Chair of Trustees at BIHR.

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Blog

Why our Human Rights Act Matters...to me as an ethnic minority within the legal profession

Keysha is a corporate paralegal with a BA Hons in Law, currently studying for her MSc in Human Rights at the University of London. She looks at the ways the Human Rights Act has supported her.

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Blog

Why our Human Rights Act Matters...to everyone

Hear from members of our RITES Committee on why it's so important that human rights apply to everyone equally.

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Blog

SEND support should have human rights at the core, now and in the future

Annie explores why our Human Rights Act matters across the SEND system - in community advocacy, in decision-making, and in any future policy & legislative reform.

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Blog

Human Rights and SEND: How to Raise a Human Rights Issue

This last blog in our SEND Advocacy series 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.

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Blog

School Transport and the Right to Education

This blog sets out how Article 2 Protocol 1 of the Human Rights Act (the right to education) can interact with the provision of school transport.

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Blog

Human Rights Act Advocacy: Moving on from the mistakes and building the knowledge, capacity, and solidarity needed

Our CEO Sanchita shares her top tips for using the Human Rights Act to bring about real and lasting change, based on two decades of experience doing just that.

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Blog

The world we could build, one where Human Rights Act Advocacy is possible

Carlyn explores the importance of empowering communities to understand and use the Human Rights Act in everyday life as a vital tool for social change across the UK

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