Blog: Empowerment through using rights-based language

In order for everyone to know and be able to advocate for their rights, it is important that people see themselves as having rights to begin with. Using rights-based language is a simple way to support your staff, volunteers and service-users to understand their rights and feel confident speaking about them in a range of settings.  

This use of language can also contribute to a change in perspective from everyone within the organisation about the work that you do, and a positive culture change towards being person-centred in all that the organisation does.

We like to refer to this helpful table from Equally Ours which highlights the difference between having a needs-based approach to the work of a third sector organisation versus have a rights-based approach. It shows how shifting perspective can result in ways of working which prioritise the experience of the person being supported as a minimum standard. 

Rights based language can be integrated into the culture and language of an organisation through a range of simple steps: 

• Developing a rights charter – Rights charters are tools that can be written in collaboration with the people it applies to in order to establish expectations within a particular setting or when accessing a service. They may be similar to a behavioural agreement or shared code of conduct. Rights charters are useful for creating an equitable space where ways of working are decided together rather than being dictated by one party.  

• Training – Staff members and volunteers will be more confident using rights-based language in their everyday work if they fully understand what this language means in relation to the organisation and feel invested in its usage. Investing in training and professional development can support this. Organisations may opt to have all team members attend specific human rights and equalities training together, or include such training as part of their induction process. Continuing learning around human rights and equalities language can also be encouraged through less formal methods, such as periodically sharing resources around human rights and equalities within newsletters or within communication channels. 

• Written materials for staff, service users and volunteers – Written materials can be a simple way of ensuring that staff, volunteers and service users can easily check what their rights are within a space or scenario. A simple example of this is ‘Your Rights in Our Space’ posters. These are simple posters which let readers know what they should expect from the organisation when in their space. Rights language can also be integrated into other written material to clearly signpost the organisation’s values i.e., within leaflets or webpages promoting services or within terms of reference for working groups. This should go beyond have copy and pasting the same generic declaration regardless of the context it will be used in and should instead be specific to the situation, feel relevant and contain clear actions or rights.  

• Strategic plans and mission statements – Strategic plans and mission statements determine the direction and vision of an organisation. Including rights-based language within these documents allows a human rights and equalities culture to be established from the top down. It signals to anyone looking to find out about the organisation that it values human rights and equalities as a key priority, and can be used as a starting point for building policies and processes from a rights-based foundation. It’s important that human rights and equalities are framed in a wider vision and not just in piecemeal one-off documents. 

• Reframe what you already do – As a third sector organisation, it’s very likely that the work you do at the moment is human rights work but do you talk about it in this way? Food banks support people in reaching their right to food; Citizen’s Advice Bureau’s support people in their right to social security and right to information; advocacy groups support people in their right to justice and right to be heard; and so on. Think about how the work your organisation does impacts on people’s rights and don’t be afraid to frame your work in this way. If you don’t feel comfortable with detailing specific rights you can use FREDA and PANEL as more general ways of relating your work to things like Fairness, Dignity and Empowerment. 

Whilst the specific language that is most relevant will vary depending on the organisation, some terms to be aware of are: 

• Human rights – Recognises that people face discrimination and prejudice in relation to some differences and seeks to remove these barriers. Equality means having equal opportunities and not being discriminated against. This is also sometimes referred to as equity. 
• Equality – Recognises that people face discrimination and prejudice in relation to some differences and seeks to remove these barriers. Equality means having equal opportunities and not being discriminated against. This is also sometimes referred to as ‘equity.’ 
• Human rights and equalities first approach – Using the ideas and principles of human rights and equalities using them to inform the policies and practices of an organisation. 
• Protected characteristics – The nine characteristics protected within the Equality Act (2010). These are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation. 
• Marginalisation – When a person or groups of people are less able to do things or access basic services or opportunities. It’s also sometimes referred to as social exclusion. 
• Intersectionality – Intersectionality is the interaction and influence that having multiple characteristics, that in some way marginalise you, have on an individual and the way they experience the world. 
• Structural inequality – an imbalance of power or resources caused by systems within society that advantage people because of their personal characteristics and disadvantage others. 
• FREDA – A set of principles that underpin human rights legislation and guidance, all of our human rights help us to achieve these principles, FREDA stands for: Fairness, Respect, Equality, Dignity and Autonomy. 
• PANEL – A toolkit for human rights in practice, PANEL stands for: Participation, Accountability, Non-discrimination, Empowerment and Legality.