Rachel Krys Communications Director Equally

Introducing Equality & Diversity Forum and Equally Ours The Equality and Diversity Forum (EDF) is a network of national organisations committed to equal opportunities, social justice, good community relations, respect for human rights and an end to discrimination based on age, disability, gender and gender identity, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. Equally Ours was set up by EDF and is a partnership between eight national charities who have come together to raise awareness of how human rights benefit us all in everyday life.

Human rights research – phase 1, 2012 Research carried out by Bristol University, Glasgow University Media Group and YouGov and comprised: a literature review and data synthesis of previous research carried out into public attitudes on human rights between 2006 and 2011 an analysis of over 1,000 print and broadcast media items to identify the themes and trends in the media and political discourse on human rights nine focus groups and a national public opinion survey with more than 2,000 British adults to quantify the prevalence of positive, neutral, ambivalent and hostile attitudes within the population and to test and evaluate messages that shift or reinforce these attitudes (YouGov research)

Media backdrop

Media discourse analysis Building Bridges. PIRC, Counterpoint, Equally Ours. 2013

Human rights research – phase 1, 2012 Strong support for the idea of human rights across the population BUT human rights not seen as relevant to most people’s lives Human rights are consistently seen as having gone ‘too far’. Strong associations between human rights, ‘undeserving’ minorities and abuse of the system. Few trusted messengers, existing human rights organisations won’t help set the record straight.

Human rights research – phase 1, 2012 Identifying clusters based on attitudes to human rights Cluster% of populationCharacteristics Anti26%Right wing, likely to read Mail/Sun Undecided41%Broadly in line with population as a whole Pro22%Guardian/ Independent readers Don’t care11%Politically apathetic

What the research told us about this group… Most of the things we are saying in defence of human rights in the UK are putting off the vital 41%

What isn’t working? ‘Facts’ about the European Court of Human Rights Churchill’s legacy Judges ‘v’ politicians Rights pick ‘n’ mix

Human rights research – phase 1, 2012 Key drivers of positivity in ‘undecided’ group Relevance Fairness Tradition Most trusted spokespeople are those who have personal experience of having their rights breached

Human rights message testing – phase messages which link human rights to equality and social justice themes including: Children’s rights Ensuring everyone has access to public services Ending violence against women Tackling poverty Protecting people’s right to family life Preventing and tackling abuse Ending discrimination Helping people get access to justice Protecting migrants’ rights

Effective messages All the messages tested had much higher levels of agreement from all clusters. – Focus on relevance and salience Inclusive phrases like “we can be proud of’ or ‘we can support’ have greatest impact Messages which focus on care, children and mental health were most effective The messages which are explicit about rights are more effective.

The most persuadable messages

Messengers “Most people are lucky not to be targeted by police using ‘stop and search’ powers. But for too many young black men this happens regularly as they’re going about their lives. This is an important human rights issue that needs to be tackled.”

Our conclusions There is an opportunity to shift public opinion on human rights in the UK The wrong messages (and messengers) are dominant We have to dial down the ineffective messages while simultaneously dialling up the effective messages Human rights should be linked to wider debates around social justice, equality and fairness Civil society organisations are key to getting these messages out to the persuadable audience

Thanks Please get in touch if you would like more information: