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Making the case for human rights
Lawyers know the value of the Human Rights Act as they use it every day to help clients. Now it’s time for the profession and campaigners to join forces and work together to protect this vital safeguard, says Rachel Krys.
The wide gap between what human rights do in reality and how they are currently talked about presents us with an opportunity.
Across the country, lawyers are using human rights to achieve real change for individuals and force authorities to make their policies and practices fairer. Human rights laws provide a means for those who have been mistreated or failed by the system to challenge their treatment and hold authorities to account. As the stories highlighted in the Act for the Act poster campaign show (see above), human rights provide essential protection for all of us when we’re at our most vulnerable.
However, few could have failed to notice that human rights don’t always get a good press. This negative discourse is paving the way for possible changes and, with the announcement of the government’s plans for replacing the Human Rights Act expected imminently, we urgently need to communicate how important our human rights safety net is for ordinary people across the country.
In 2012 and 2014, Equally Ours carried out in-depth audience research to identify ways to communicate a range of equality and social justice issues using human rights frames. Through a survey of 2,500 people from all over the UK, we identified those we need to speak to and the most effective messages to use. We found there is a large group of people in the UK (about 40 per cent of the population) who are positive about the values behind human rights, but they don’t know that they are relevant to their lives. These people are heavily influenced by the negative media discourse. But when they hear about older people, or those experiencing a mental health crisis, or children challenging poor treatment or neglect, they quickly become more positive about human rights.
What does this mean for the way lawyers could talk about human rights? Our research shows:
•it’s important to focus on the cases we know build public sympathy – talk about children, people in care, victims of domestic violence, and those experiencing mental health problems;
•talking about the tradition and heritage of human rights can increase positivity, but don’t get lost in the past – the Human Rights Act is more relevant than Magna Carta for most people today;
•simply expressing human rights as something ‘we’ can be proud of or ‘we’ should support has a very positive impact on those who are undecided about them; and
•correcting inaccurate reports only reinforces the negative frames – avoid saying, ‘Human rights are not just for [insert whatever derogatory term you’re correcting here],’ and focus on your positive story, with the underlying message that human rights are for everyone.
Crucially, our research suggests the most persuasive stories come directly from the people who have used human rights to make a positive change in their lives. Lawyers are not necessarily the best messengers for these stories.
Equally Ours collects stories that make connections between human rights protections and the issues about which people feel strongly. Our growing databank of human rights stories and films has been created with leading charities (including Age UK, Women’s Aid, Mind, the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, Just for Kids Law and others) and is shared with journalists to help communicate how human rights benefit people – both in and outside the courtroom.
We need more stories to add to this databank, which is where Legal Action readers can help. Lawyers working directly with clients and using human rights to advocate for them have access to unique and important stories. You can contact us via our website if you have case studies to share. We can work with you to collect, write up and (in appropriate cases) film more stories to help bring human rights to life.
The wide gap between what human rights do in reality and how they are currently talked about presents us with an opportunity to reclaim this space and show how they benefit us all every day. Reframed as positive and relevant, human rights can continue to act as a crucial source of legal protection for people across the country. ■