Human Rights Day 2025: Open Letter

To mark Human Rights Day 2025, BIHR has co-ordinated an open letter to the Prime Minister and political leaders, signed by over 180 organisations from across all four nations of the UK. The letter calls for political leadership and commitment to make universal human rights protections real for people, every day.

For media enquiries about our civil society letter to the Prime Minister please contact us on press@bihr.org.uk - thank you. 

The letter marks 75 years of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and 25 years since the Human Rights Act brought its protections into UK law. The letter recognises the quiet power of human rights protections in the places where people access education, healthcare and housing, ensuring justice when things go wrong. Although many are worried about the future this year, BIHR and over 180 signatories choose to hopeful, sharing a bold vision for human rights here in the UK.

The letter calls on the Prime Minister and political leaders to:

• Publicly reaffirm the UK’s commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Human Rights Act.
• Reject any proposals that weaken these frameworks and commit to securing them now and for the future.
• Invest in making human rights real, ensuring that communities, public bodies and individuals have the knowledge, resources and confidence to uphold them in practice.
• Lead with clarity and courage, being clear that human rights are not a partisan issue but the shared foundation of our democracy.

We also created an Easy Read version of the letter and a video version of the letter, with kind support from members of Pembrokeshire People First, All Wales People First, Parent & Carer Alliance CIC, Learning Disability England, Dates-n-Mates Scotland, and Warrington Speak Up.