Updates
Human Rights Day reception
For the 10th year running, Amnesty UK held its annual Human Rights Day reception in parliament on 3 December. The event celebrated our human rights victories and emphasised the importance of civil society, rightsholders and parliamentarians working together to take this legacy forward.
The Scottish parliament, Edinburgh Scottish and Welsh elections
The Amnesty Scotland and Wales teams are preparing for the Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections in May. In December 2025, the Scotland team published a human rights manifesto for 2026 setting out 10 calls on the next Scottish government.
The manifesto focuses on laws that
will create a fairer, more equal Scotland, including a new human rights bill that will empower people to fight for their everyday rights, such as good housing
The UK government’s homelessness strategy, published on 11 December, fails to match the urgency of the crisis in England.
With the number of households in temporary accommodation at record highs the National Plan to End Homelessness doesn’t tackle structural barriers such as inadequate social security, social security frozen below market rents, rising living costs, punitive
100 per cent of a person’s income for missing
a
sanctions single
that can remove appointment,
and
and access to strong public services. There will be lots of ways for activists
and local groups to get involved in campaigning ahead of the elections in May so keep an eye on your inbox for updates and feel free to get in touch with the relevant team with your questions and ideas.
Read Scotland: Our Human Rights Manifesto at
amnesty.org. uk/issues/scotland
Homelessness plan falls short
discriminatory housing eligibility rules. While some measures are welcome – including stronger renters’ protections, banning no-fault evictions, extending the Decent Homes Standard to temporary
accommodation, and
removing local connection requirements for some groups – many rely on guidance rather than enforceable rights and are insufficient on their own. ‘The government says it wants homelessness to be “rare, brief and a one-off”
yet continues policies that actively undermine that goal,’ said
Jen Clark, Amnesty’s economic, social and
cultural enforceable rights protections,
lead. ‘Without cross-
government leadership and meaningful action on poverty, the plan will not address the structural drivers that keep people from their right to adequate housing.’ Jen
has also been appointed to
the Right to Food UK Commission, which was launched in parliament on 17 November, strengthening calls for enforceable rights to food alongside housing.
SPRING 2026 AMNESTY 33
Twenty-three parliamentarians attended the reception alongside Amnesty activists from across the UK. Speakers included Fabian Hamilton MP, chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group (PHRG); Baroness Helena Kennedy; Monica Harding MP, the Liberal Democrats international development spokesperson; and Amnesty UK’s interim chief executive Kerry Moscogiuri. We also had stalls on our priority campaigns to showcase the depth and breadth of our work to the parliamentarians.
Following the event, on International Human Rights Day itself (10 December), we secured a Westminster Hall debate in the House of Commons through the PHRG, during which the MPs in attendance raised numerous human rights-related issues.
© Michael Wolchover/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images
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