York: Human Rights City (YHRC) network

York became the UK’s first 'human rights city' in 2017. CAHR is a driving force behind the YHRC network, with Liz Lockey and Paul Gready taking the lead. YHRC network is producing a series of fact sheets (YHRC COVID Fact sheet 1 (PDF , 133kb), YHRC COVID-19 Fact sheet 2 (PDF , 613kb) YHRC COVID-19 fact sheet 3 (PDF , 319kb)) for local government and statutory agencies – notably the City of York Council, the NHS and the police – and community and voluntary groups.

It offers guidance on addressing human rights when making the difficult policy decisions required by the pandemic, as well as frameworks to support advocacy and the monitoring of policy as it impacts on individuals, families and communities, and on issues of concern (such as mental health, disability and refugees).

In addition, we are keen to gather evidence from as many parts of our community as we can: the YHRC network plans to respond to the recently announced invitation to submit evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into the impact of the UK Government’s COVID-19 legislation.

We have contacted our local networks to document local experiences and views, so that we can contribute York’s experience to this important national review. To make it easy to contribute, we are inviting people to either complete our complete our survey, email us with comments, or take part in a telephone interview. You can contact us on info@yorkhumanrights.org, and the closing date for responses is the end of May 2020.

Paul Gready comments: “As always it is important for CAHR to be active locally, in our own backyard, as well as globally. For the status of ‘human rights city’ to be meaningful it needs to inform responses at times of crisis, as well as in more normal times. Our activities are focusing on providing information on how human rights can assist in tackling COVID-19, for local government, statutory bodies and civil society.”