INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 

Debate on human rights in 2025

Each year on 10 December we celebrate International Human Rights Day by highlighting issues of importance from around the world. It is an opportunity to reflect on progress made over the last year, as well as an opportunity to highlight the injustices that remain. 

For the last ten years Amnesty International UK and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Human Rights have held a Parliamentary reception to celebrate human rights. For eight years we welcomed a Minister or Secretary of State at that event to set out the UK Government’s commitments to human rights.

As we have not been joined by a government representative since the 2024 election, we urge Parliamentarians to use this debate to express the importance of the UK government prioritising opportunities to join civil society and human rights activists from around the country to promote human rights. When civil society, rights’ activists, Parliament and Government come together, we can speak with one voice about the benefits that human rights bring to people’s lives, which is needed now more than ever. 

Human rights are under attack globally, and this briefing covers a selection of priority issues for Amnesty International UK, including the ongoing genocide in Gaza and conflict in Sudan, threats to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), transnational repression to Hong Kong nationals, and British Nationals arbitrarily detained abroad.