Weekly Human Rights News: 16/05/2025

This week, we delivered the first of our two-part human rights staff capacity-building workshops with Leeds and York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust (LYPFT).

In the session, we spoke about how the Human Rights Act (HRA) works, and how it can be used practically by staff in inpatient and community mental health services. We also spent time focusing on specific human rights, such as the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence (Article 8 of the HRA), the right to liberty (Article 5 of the HRA), and the right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment (Article 3 of the HRA).

We will be running ten two-part human rights workshops for LYPFT to support them in building their knowledge and understanding in using human rights in their work. In a survey following the first workshop, participants said that the workshop was “really engaging and well thought through”, with another saying that the information “was explained in a way I understand now am able to apply this to my service users”.

Article 8 of the Human Rights Act protects our right to private & family life.

Everyone in the UK has this right and it comes up in all aspects of our lives, from health and social care to asylum to schools and more.

On Thursday 15^th May, to celebrate the International Day of Families, we shared stories of the right in action with videos from community groups, RITES Committee members and BIHR staff as well as stories, resources and legal cases.

Our CEO, Sanchita, talked about using the right in both her private and professional life. RITES Committee member and Easy Read Champion Lucy talked about why the right is so important to her as someone who was adopted. Southall Community Alliance shared how they’ve used the right to campaign against the closure of children’s centres.

Hear their stories and more on our X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.

The JCHR wrote to the Health and Social Care Secretary about the Mental Health Bill

The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR), a parliamentary committee which considers human rights issues, has written to Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, about the Mental Health Bill. The JCHR has been examining the Bill, which will change part of the law relating to the assessment, treatment and rights of people experiencing mental distress in England and Wales. As part of its scrutiny, the JCHR held a roundtable with people with personal experience of the mental health system in the UK, and has called on the UK Government to take the concerns raised into account as the Bill passes through Parliament.

BIHR supported members of our RITES Committee to attend this roundtable and share their views about the Bill. The JCHR said: “The roundtable was incredibly helpful. It yielded many insights with participants highlighting a number of key issues and concerns. These include the detention of people with learning disabilities and autistic people, the availability of community support, and the treatment of children.”

Read the letter.

Read BIHR’s response to the JCHR’s legislative scrutiny of the Mental Health Bill.

The UK Government published an Immigration White Paper

This week, the Home Office published a white paper called ‘Restoring control over the immigration system’. A white paper is a policy document created by the Government that sets out its plans for future legislation. According to Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, the paper ‘set[s] out reforms to legal migration, so that we can restore order, control and fairness to the system, bring down net migration and promote economic growth’.

Part of the plans includes introducing legislation which will “clarify” the rules around Article 8 of the Human Rights Act (HRA), which protects the right to respect for private and family life. Article 8 is a non-absolute right, which means that the state (including the Home Office) can sometimes make decisions which interfere with our family life, but only if this is shown to be lawful, for a legitimate aim, and proportionate.

There are different ways that people can apply to enter or stay in the UK, with a number of routes set out in the UK’s Immigration Rules, including applications to stay with family members. If somebody isn’t able to apply through one of these routes, they might be able to argue that they have “exceptional circumstances” that mean not letting them enter or stay would breach their or their family member’s Article 8 rights. The Government says that in most cases, any Article 8 arguments should have already been considered and weighed up under the other routes. It therefore thinks too many cases are being treated as “exceptional” and says it wants to clarify the rules around how to apply Article 8.

The Government says it will introduce new law to do this. The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, reaffirmed the UK Government’s commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to family life and is brought into UK law by the Human Rights Act.