In a webinar on 21 January 2021, experts in human rights, some of whom draw their expertise from their lived experience and were engaging for the first time with academic, launched a series on “Building a human rights bridge out of poverty”. The aim of this first session was “Bringing Together Lived and Learnt Experience”.

The event was introduced by Patricia Bailey, of ATD Fourth World, in dialogue with Misha Nayak-Oliver, the Campaigns and Advocacy Lead at Just Fair. In this video, Patricia interviews Misha about in-work poverty and the impact of poverty on the right to family life:

In the next segment of the webinar, Nikki Hewson discussed how she defended human rights through parent-to-parent advocacy for Lewisham Council from 2012 to 2018. Nikki is an activist with ATD Fourth World and a member of the Parents, Families and Allies Network (PFAN).  Her video is below. (To read the full text of her remarks, please click here.)

Here, a member of RAPAR (Refugee and Asylum Participatory Action Research) discusses the current experience and situation of people seeking asylum in the UK and the need for equal human rights and being treated with dignity and respect:

The final speaker at this webinar was Kait Laughlin, presenting in a personal capacity. She was previously an anti-poverty community activist and now works in poverty and human rights education and research. She also co-led a national professional learning project supporting poverty and human rights awareness in Scottish schools. Here, she speaks about the importance of, and urgent need for, accessible human rights education on poverty:

This series, focused on poverty as a human rights violation in the UK, is being co-organised by ATD Fourth World, Amnesty International UK, Just Fair, and the Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex.