Human Rights Day 2022: Our Impact

We wrote a letter to the Prime Minister signed by over 150 organisations, we hosted an online event and we ran our #KnowYourHumanRights social media challenge.

Background with person icons in multicoloured squares and text reading: "Human Rights Day 2022 Community Mobilisation"

Our Online Event

We hosted an online event for community and voluntary groups, which was attended by representatives from different organisations from across the UK.

The event aimed to share positive stories of communities using the Human Rights Act in practice and inspire others to utilise human rights advocacy.

We invited speakers from three communities that we'd worked with before: Scottish Recovery Consortium; Pembrokeshire People First; and Hopscotch Women's Centre.

62

People attended our online event, representing community groups from across the UK.

100%

After the event, 100% of people said they felt human rights are very relevant to their work or community.

4.5

Participants rated the event 4.5/5 with everyone rating it "very good" or "excellent".

The Impact of Human Rights

During the event, our community representatives talked about the impact using human rights and working with BIHR has had on them and the people the work with. For example:

Multi-coloured person icons in background with quote reading: "It really has felt that there has been an element of being part of a movement and community mobilisation and it feels like it's just the start"

PPF

SRC

Hopscotch

Event Participant

"The balance between celebrating community initiatives and how these can influence policy was excellent."

Event Participant

"Very relevant, interesting - I will definitely engage our org in this programme."

Event Participant

"BIHR communicate how human rights are relevant to everyone's day to day life, not something in a dusty book."

Event Participant

"ALL EXCELLENT"

Our #KnowYourHumanRights Challenge

This Human Rights Day marked the start of the United Nations' campaign to "counter the increasing scepticism and rollbacks against human rights" by "offering concrete knowledge and tools to help people better fight for their rights".

In support of this, we asked our online community to share something they think everyone should know about human rights in the UK, using the tag #KnowYourHumanRights.

We created a social media pack to help get people started and also shared daily posts across our channels during the week of Human Rights Day (from 5th December - 11th December).

14,729

Our posts throughout Human Rights Day week reached almost 15,000 people.

4

People from across all four nations in the UK took part on social media.

400+

Over 400 people engaged with our posts or made their own.

Tweet from Amanda Nally: "“If we start with human rights as the base for all we do and consider we won’t go wrong” #KnowYourHumanRights"

Tweet from Human Rights Consortium NI: "Did you know that the Human Rights Act delivered a fundamental commitment from the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement to complete incorporation into Northern Ireland law of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)? #KnowYourHumanRights @BIHRhumanrights"

Tweet from Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance: "Did you know that some human rights (known as absolute rights) can never be interfered with, while others can be restricted in limited circumstances? Find out which ones are which here: https://buff.ly/3M0ITe4 #KnowYourHumanRights"

Tweet from All Wales People First: "Tomorrow is Human Rights Day. Did you know the HRA is the main human rights protection in the UK? It puts duties on public bodies to respect & protect rights in everything they do. If people's rights aren't respected, they can challenge this #KnowYourHumanRights @BIHRhumanrights"

Logos of signatories to the Human Rights Day 2022 letter

Our Letter to the Prime Minister

We led civil society and community organisations groups from across the UK to send a joint letter to the Prime Minister, calling for political leadership on human rights here at home.

The letter was signed by organisations working on a broad range of issues from those supporting children, carers, women experiencing violence, migrants and older people to those campaigning for LGBT+ rights, decent housing and democratic accountability.

We also worked with Pembrokeshire People First to create an Easy Read Letter and with other self-led advocacy groups to turn it into a video.

158

158 organisations from across the UK and different sectors joined us in signing the letter.

100+

Our video versions of the letter and the Easy Read letter have been watched over 100 times.

4

Communities working in all four nations of the UK have signed up to the letter.

Our Easy Read Human Rights Day blog for Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities

Read the blog

BIHR's CEO writes about the UK Government's Bill to scrap our Human Rights Act in Byline Times

Read the opinion piece

Our Human Rights Day letter to the Prime Minister signed by 150+ organisations covered in The Guardian

Read the article

Alix, Include

"Very proud to sign this letter on behalf of Include...Such important work from [BIHR] - I hope the people who should are listening."

Helen, POhWER

"Only together can Civil Society amplify the voices of millions protected by the Human Rights Act. POhWER Advocacy stands proudly with 157 organisations to oppose any interference with HRA. Thank you to [BIHR] for organising this latest letter to the Prime Minister."

Sonya, Freedom from Torture

"Freedom from Torture is delighted to be part of this call on Rishi Sunak to keep his hands off our Human Rights Act."

Sharing real stories of the Human Rights Act

In the lead-up to Human Rights Day and as part of our ongoing campaign to stand up for our Human Rights Act, we shared real-life stories about how our Human Rights Act impacts people across the UK.

We've done (and continue to do) this through our Why Our Human Rights Act Matters series, featuring guest blogs from communities and individuals across the UK, as well as sharing the stories of the people we work with who rely on human rights every day.

We've shared these stories with Parliamentarians and people with the power to vote against laws weakening our Human Rights Act and have seen them used in debates to highlight the importance of human rights.