Award-winning actors Olivia Colman and Adrian Lester are starring in a gripping new short film released today by Amnesty International UK, as the organisation calls attention to a national human rights crisis happening in the UK.
The film based on the tragedy of the death of Awaab Ishak, in Rochdale thrusts viewers into the heart-wrenching reality of a young mother trapped in a broken housing system.
Evicted and then re-housed in temporary accommodation that’s riddled with black mould resulting in the baby’s death.
Amnesty’s aim is not just to expose this unacceptable truth but to underscore that this is just one of many attacks on human rights unfolding in the UK. For more than a decade, the UK has systematically dismantled a staggering number of vital human rights protections.
Britain risks fast losing its self-proclaimed position as a global leader in upholding human rights. The film seeks to jolt the country’s conscience to take urgent action to recognise the scale of human rights violations happening all around us.
The right to a basic standard of living required to maintain human dignity has been severely eroded forcing millions of people to struggle each day to access what they need in order to live: secure shelter, being able to put enough food on the table, parents’ ability to clothe their children or get access to adequate health care.
The denial of human rights often seems a distant problem, something we only see on our screens or read about in far-away places. But this isn’t drama, it’s real life here in the UK.
According to recent Government statistics in England alone, more than 100,000 families are living in temporary accommodation, with nearly 139,000 children in England homeless or in temporary accommodation. Since 2019, at least 34 children in England have died in temporary accommodation.
Despite the UK’s role in championing the right to an adequate standard of living in international law – including food and housing, the right to health, education and access to benefits – under the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, these protections have not then been transposed in to UK law and are being violated in the day to day lives of many people across the country.
Even though none of these basic necessities are as yet protected as a human right in UK law, new research commissioned this month from Opinium by Amnesty shows that 73% of adults in the UK feel access to decent and secure housing should be; 79% feel the same about access to physical and mental healthcare should, and 75% feel access to adequate food should also be legally protected as a human right.
Olivia Colman, Amnesty International UK Ambassador:
“It’s easy to feel like we do enough, that human rights are for someone else to handle. We’re so accustomed to seeing human rights violations in other countries across the world that many of us believe these abuses are far away and have nothing to do with us. But in reality, they are happening right on our doorstep – human rights in the UK are under threat, and I hope this film will spur people on and encourage them to tune in and take action.”
