Human Rights Inquiry Report

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Human Rights Inquiry

Easy Read summary report


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What is in this report

Page

Introduction 1

Some examples of when human rightslaw might help 2

What we wanted to find out 6

How we did this work 7

What do people think about humanrights? 8

The good things human rights law can do 9

What needs to be done to sort out theproblems? 12


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What is in this report

Page

14

What the Equality and Human RightsCommission must do 14

What we heard 15

What the Equality and Human RightsCommission will do 16

And finally 19

Other formats 20

How to contact us 20


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Introduction

The Equality and Human RightsCommission works to make sure thatpeople are treated fairly and equally.

We work to make sure people:

get their human rights

get on better together

have a fair chance to take part insociety.

Human rights are basic rights andfreedoms that belong to every person inthe world.

Human rights are there to protect everyone.The Human Rights Act is the law abouthuman rights.

Public services like social services,healthcare, schools and the police have tohelp make sure people get their human

rights.


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Some examples of whenhuman rights law might help

Not being able to eat properly while inhospital or a care home.

Abuse of people with learningdisabilities.

No privacy in hospital.

Young black men being stopped andsearched too much.


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Gay and lesbian partners not havingthe same rights as other couples.

Not being properly protected frombeing stalked.

Not being properly protected frombeing hurt at home.

Not being given the adapted housingyou need.

Bullying in schools.


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Not being allowed to wear religioussymbols like a cross at work.

Not good enough schooling for children with special educationalneeds.

Stopping people from going on ademonstration.


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In 2008 we asked people how far respectfor human rights had become a part of our

way of life.

We also thought about what could be done,

using human rights, to make life fairer andmore equal for everyone.

This Easy Read report is about what wefound out and what else we think should bedone.


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What we wanted to find out

We wanted to find out about:

human rights in public services inEngland and Wales

the things that stopped people gettingtheir human rights

the good things that have happened inthese public services

how other services or organisationscould learn from these good things

what the Equality and Human RightsCommission could learn for our workwith public services in the future.


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How we did this work

We heard from nearly 3,000 people suchas:

people who use services

people who provide services

inspectors

others.

We did this in lots of different ways fromresearch projects to hearing what people

said to us.


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What do people think abouthuman rights?

We found out that:

most people think it is important tohave a law on human rights

but nearly half think the only peoplewho get their rights are criminals andterrorists

the newspapers sometimes got itwrong and said human rights wereused when they were not and gavepeople a bad view of human rights

this bad view in some newspaperscould slow down people getting their human rights.


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The good things human rightslaw can do

We heard about services getting better when they think about human rights.

We heard how services got better in:

HealthcarePeople got better treatment and knewwhat to do or when to complain.

Local authoritiesThe way they treated travellers andyoung people got better.

PoliceThe way they protected police officersand people who cant protectthemselves got better.


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SchoolsPupils and school staff were safer.

InspectionsInspectors made services better.

Some examples of when humanrights law was used

A local community organisationsupporting young people helpedyoung people understand that theyshould not be abused and about their rights about sex.

Counsel and Care helped a manswife with Alzheimers stay in a localnursing home closer to her family.


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The group Liberty changed policerules about keeping all young peoplehome late at night when they hadntdone anything wrong.

Liberty also protected peoplesrights to protest. It was agreed thepolice were wrong to arrest 5protesters and had to pay themdamages.

Protecting a patient in hospital. Itwas agreed that a man with cerebralpalsy could still have some food fed tohim by mouth because he wanted to,

even though there was a risk he mightchoke.

The group Choices and RightsDisability Coalition helped a severelydisabled young man go back to

college with proper support.

An advice centre got an agreementfor an asylum-seeker to pay ahealthcare bill for her son in bits

instead of all at once.


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What needs to be done to sortout the problems?

We heard that people were havingproblems getting their human right to betreated fairly and equally.

We thought a lot of these problems couldbe sorted out quite easily.

The problems included:

services not knowing enough abouthuman rights and how to treat peoplefairly and equally

?people with learning disabilities andother vulnerable people not knowingenough about human rights and howto get them


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services not talking about humanrights in their organisations

some newspapers saying that humanrights were not used properly or not for everyone.


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What the Equality and HumanRights Commission must do

People said the Equality and Human rightsCommission should:

make human rights the most importantthing they work on

help other organisations and staff know what human rights mean in their work

give newspapers the right informationabout human rights

let people know that they have rightsand how they can use them.


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What we heard

We heard that the Human Rights Act hasmade some public services better and if people understand it properly they can beeven better still.

When this is done peoples lives arechanged and made much better.

But there is still a lot to do to make thingsfairer and more equal for everyone. Wehave some ideas about what needs tochange to make this happen.


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What the Equality and HumanRights Commission will do

We will:

work with others to help and supportorganisations to use a human rightsway of working

find out about good examples and tellothers about these so they can do thesame

check authorities are using humanrights in their rules for services

ask the Government and others to givegood leadership on human rights andthe law

be good leaders ourselves


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write new guides for people abouthuman rights and get others to do thesame

help organisations use human rights intheir work and all they do

keep an eye on the news for storiesabout human rights and helpnewspapers understand about humanrights law and what it does and doesnot do

tell people every time we can the goodthings about human rights

have more on our website abouthuman rights


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help authorities do the things theyshould do under the human rights law

help inspectors check thatorganisations are working in the rightway so people get their human rights

keep our help and information up todate

help schools and young people to

know more about human rights.

2012We will also look at this work again in 3years time and see how well things have

gone and how much has changed.


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And finally

We found that most people want humanrights and think that they are important.

It is time for a new understanding of whathuman rights are really about and what weshould all be doing to help.

All the things we have said the Equality andHuman Rights Commission should do inthis paper would help to make sure peopleget their human rights when using publicservices.


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Other formats

Please ask if you want this document inanother format like:

Braille

audio

large print

another language.

How to contact us

You can also find out more about us, lookat or order information, or get in touch withus by

Website:

www.equalityhumanrights.com

or

contact one of our helplines (Please go tothe next page)


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For England

Telephone:

0845 604 6610 (local rate charge)

Textphone:


Fax:

0845 604 6630

Opening times:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday:9am5pm

Wednesday:9am8pm


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For Wales

Telephone:


Textphone:


Fax:

0845 604 8830

Opening times:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday:9am5pm

Wednesday:9am8pm


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Credits

This summary report has been designedand produced for the Equality and HumanRights Commission by the EasyReadservice at Inspired Services Publishing Ltd.Ref ISL082/09. May 2009.

Artwork is from the Valuing People ClipArtcollection and cannot be used anywhereelse without written permission fromInspired Services. To contact InspiredServices:

www.inspiredservices.org.uk


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Equality and Human Rights Commission

Documents

Human Rights Inquiry Report