Recently in Human rights Category

 by Allan Norman

Regulars will know I've followed developments relating to the death in custody of Adam Rickwood. The latest, widely publicised, development is the decision of the high court to order a new inquest into Adam's death, see Pounder, R (on the application of) v HM Coroner for the North & South Districts of Durham & Darlington & Ors [2009] EWHC 76 (Admin) (22 January 2009).

Will social work be in the firing line? I think and hope not.

 by Allan Norman

 by Allan Norman

Today is the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arguably still the most important human rights declaration.

Yesterday, I was speaking about rights without remedies, and the Universal Declaration seemed an obvious example - its broad approach to rights, that includes social rights such as housing, employment, food and clothing, rest and leisure, and collective rights including "to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realised", goes well beyond the more limited rights (controversial enough, it seems) for which we have a remedy in our Human Rights Act.

 by Allan Norman

My colleague Yasmeen Qazi - a social worker and solicitor like myself - has recently been able to positively clarify rights to social services when a potential service user's presence here is both settled and stable on the one hand, but illegal on the other.

The case is R (on the application of C) v Birmingham City Council [2008] All ER (D) 171 (Nov). The brief facts are that the issue was whether the family could access support from the statutory social services authority in the form of accommodation and subsistence support under the Children Act 1989. The family comprised a mother who was an overstayer and therefore illegally present, an eldest child in respect of whom an application had been made for settlement under the "seven year concession", and three further British children born between 2004 and 2006.

 by Allan Norman

"Sir, We are frequently told that "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear".
Not so. I fear having to prove I have nothing to hide."

...ran Alan Douglas' letter published in the Times and Telegraph newspapers, two days before the historic judgement of the European Court of Human Rights this week in S. AND MARPER v. THE UNITED KINGDOM - 30562/04 [2008] ECHR 1581 (4 December 2008).

 by Allan Norman

Three questions: When will we be able to know that Adam Rickwood's death was not in vain? How should a social worker running a Secure Training Centre approach human rights? And would you remove a child from a parent who calculatingly gave them a bloody nose?

8 August 2004 - Adam Rickwood becomes the youngest person to die in UK custody in modern times. Adam hung himself in Hassockfield Secure Training Centre 6 hours after staff applied "nose distraction" techniques. According to the Youth Justice Board, this involves inflicting "a momentary burst of pain to the nose". The Guardian reported that this "has variously been described as a squeezing, tweaking, flicking or karate-like chop to the nose. Adam bled for an hour. Six hours later he killed himself."

 by Allan Norman

This week, the UK Government finally announced it is to begin the process of lifting the Reservations it put in place when signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This is a move that has been widely welcomed and commended, not least by UNICEF, and rightly so since it is a positive and beneficial step. Somewhat ungraciously, therefore, let me explain my reaction, that this is too little, too late.

To paraphrase Mother Theresa, "it is a poverty to decide that another must die so that you may live as you wish".

"AIDS victim must die" is the inevitable human interest angle on the judgement of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights this week in the case of N. v. THE UNITED KINGDOM - 26565/05 [2008] ECHR 376(27^th May 2008).

Behind the devastating consequences for that one Ugandan woman lies a much wider point of principle determined by the Court in this case that will be of concern to us as human rights professionals.