Legal & Advocacy
Legal Advice and Advocacy
Please select the service you require.
LEGAL ADVICE
If you are looking for legal advice on employment and immigration issues, please continue to IHRC Legal website to get more information.
ADVOCACY
If you need help to make a complaint about a public body such as housing, education and the police service, continue below.
About IHRC Advocacy
IHRC Advocacy is a free, impartial and independent advocacy service that aims to help people through the complaints process if they are subjected to racial or religious discrimination in public services including housing, education, from the police and other bodies. This includes assisting individuals with identifying the issues, who to complain to and drafting the complaint itself, as well as signposting to organisations who may be able to assist and provide further information that may be beneficial. We also assist with Police complaints including police conduct and Victims’ Right of Review.
Areas where we assist:
- Complaints about racism and Islamophobia to government bodies (eg against social services findings/disclosure and barring service disclosures etc)
- Education: discrimination on the basis of race or faith (ie complaints to schools, Local Authorities, Department of Education, Ofsted etc)
- Prevent: e.g. Education, NHS, other public bodies
- Schedule 7
- Police conduct – Independent Office of Police Complaints (IOPC)
- Victims’ Right of Review (VRR) – where police close or no further action (NFA) a case
- Media: identifying defamation/libel, complaints to Press Complaints Commission
- Charity: Dealing with Charity Commission Investigations / Complaints against Charity Commission
Need to talk?
You can either contact us on any of the options below, or fill in the contact form. Please ensure all information is provided in full.
Call us
0208 904 4222
Email us
advocacy@ihrc.org
Success stories
IHRC Advocacy assisted a client with a complaint about police conduct and a request for a Victim’s Right of Review after their case was erroneously closed. The police Professional Standards Department (PSD) upheld several of our allegations against the local police force. Significantly, the investigator also recommended the client apply for a Victims Right of Review of the police force’s decision to close the case having found no proper consideration of the evidence or investigation of the case had been undertaken. IHRC Advocacy therefore applied for a Victim’s Right of Review, which was successful and the police reopened the case.
IHRC Advocacy assisted a hockey club with their claim for indirect racial discrimination and victimisation against a regional umpiring association. The hockey team’s claim was initially upheld but the umpiring association appealed and won on a technicality. Nevertheless, it was reported in The Hockey Paper 2020 the discrimination complaint levelled against a regional umpires’ association led to “significant changes” in governance and how disrepute complaints are handled.
IHRC Advocacy assisted a teenager to successfully challenge a referral by her school and social services to the Prevent deradicalisation process, Channel, despite a police decision not to pursue a case against her.
IHRC Advocacy successfully assisted a Teaching Assistant in her fight to keep her job against a Work Investigation launched by her school into the allegation that she had acted in a manner outside of working hours which was incompatible with her job role. This was due to the fact the teaching assistant was married to a man convicted of terrorist offences, of which the school had become aware several years after she was employed. On the basis of our representations and arguments, the investigator concluded the evidence.
A Muslim pupil can now pray at school thanks to IHRC intervention. The family of the nine-year-old pupil first contacted IHRC when the school had prevented their child from praying. The school had argued that it was a secular school, so did not allow any activity aimed at one religion. This meant that the child had to choose between going to school and practicing her religion. IHRC then contacted a team of solicitors to take the case on. Leigh Day and Co solicitors successfully mediated the case and managed to get the Muslim pupil access to prayer facilities in school.
In 2009 IHRC received an apology from BAA (authority in charge of most UK international airports) after our client was mistreated during a search at an international airport. They also agreed to re-issue guidance on how to deal with sensitive religious/cultural issues and to involve IHRC in future training programs.
IHRC Advocacy is supported by IHRC Trust [Charity number: 1106120]
