Human rights

Human Rights and Equalities Board

City of York Council and the York Human Rights City Steering Group established the Human Rights and Equalities Board with a remit to:

The board's terms of reference provide for it to play a leadership role in creating a 'human rights culture' in the city by:

engaging the city’s key agencies in the vision of YHRC
developing human rights approaches as a means of every day problem solving for all
encouraging multi-actor approaches to addressing human rights issues in the city
developing “translators” and “champions” who will help to institutionalise human rights values across the city’s institutions
making Council staff and those in partner organisations aware of the relevance of human rights to their every day work and equipping them to talk about them
increasing knowledge and awareness of human rights amongst elected members

It will also:

develop tools to engage communities, in areas relevant to the board’s work, through rights-based approaches, and through helping to build community leadership
assist the Council and partner agencies to develop human rights frameworks and strategies, and to incorporate human rights into their formal procedures in such a way that supports the respect, protection, fulfilment and promotion of human rights
promote best practice within agencies across the city, e.g. by:
- developing expertise in applying a human rights lens, for example to approaches to equalities
- applying human rights approaches in the specific areas identified within the 5 priorities
adopt an outcomes based approach alongside a rights based approach
develop appropriate mechanisms to monitor and communicate results on a regular basis

In doing this, the Board will, amongst other things:

place a focus each year on an area(s) of the indicators, identifying the required change, recommending solutions, and producing a report on this area(s)
produce action plans and allocate resources to projects in order to deliver change
provide advice to the Steering Group on refreshing and developing the indicators over time in the light of work undertaken
ensure that appropriate linkage is made between this work and One Planet York and the Sustainable Development Goals

The board will have a core membership drawn from one City of York councillor from each of the political group and: