In February 2017 after months of negotiations trying to avoid compulsory redundancies triggered by deep budget cuts, EHRC management sent e-mails to 8 workers work addresses informing them they were being made redundant whilst they were taking part in a lawful one day protest strike. The EHRC still has over 47 equivalent vacancies these displaced workers could easily fill, but has so far refused to do so. What is so shocking is this employer also happens to be the UK's UN recognised guardian of our Human Rights! With Brexit uncertainty and challenges to Human Rights law being suggested, we need a strengthened fully resourced EHRC to defend the most vulnerable from discrimination and attack.

In light of the British electorate's response to The Government's request for a mandate to pursue what has been termed a 'hard Brexit' approach to leaving the EU I believe that the Government should now respect the will of the people for a 'softer Brexit'. In order to demonstrate that commitment I petition The Government to include a clause in The Queen's speech to guarantee to the British people that the UK will remain within the single market as part of the terms of withdrawal from the EU.

Currently same sex marriage is not allowed in Northern Ireland. This is because, despite laws being passed in the UK that grant same-sex marriages, the Northern Irish assembly (because of the now infamous DUP) has blocked any such proposal there. This means that LGBT UK citizens are being treated as 2nd class citizens in a part of the UK, we need to address this quickly and with certainty, as this is intolerable. It will also have further reaching consequences as a change in law in Northern Ireland will strengthen our position when campaigning with other countries when they deny their citizens equal LGBT rights.

In the aftermath of the recent Manchester bombing and the London Bridge atrocity, The Daily Mail published a front page headline and a 13 page campaign against Jeremy Corbyn's inner circle and The Sun newspaper simultaneously published a libellous front page article entitled "Jezza's Jihadi Comrades", one day before polling stations opened for the General Election. These actions had the clear aim of influencing public opinion to believe there was a link between Jeremy Corbyn and Jihadism. These actions are highly inflammatory as they prey on a heightened state of public fear against Islam as well as potentially undermining the UK election campaign as a whole. We call on The Daily Mail and The Sun to issue an immediate public apology to Jeremy Corbyn.

MITIE Group PLC is the UK's single largest provider of immigration detention centers. Inspections have severely criticised these facilities for detaining people for 'unreasonably long' periods (even when medical and mental health professionals have recommended their release) in 'desolate' and insanitary conditions. Other exploitative practices include the use of inmates to perform essential maintenance work, with payment of only £1 an hour, while incidents of serious self-harm quadrupled in 2 years at one immigration detention centers operated by MITIE. Durham University has a long and proud record of respect for human rights and social justice, a record that is being tarnished by our association with immoral companies like MITIE. Working with these firms is an embarrassment to the student body and the university as a whole, this is why we are calling VC Stuart Corbridge's administration to cease all relations with MITIE (firstly by not renewing their current £5 million contract, due for renewal this year) and to look into updating the University's procurement policy to include more human rights requirements.

Cae is a valued member of our community and has contributed a great deal to Bentley House Estate and supported many of its tenants/leaseholders over the last 20 years. City South Housing Assocation, now part of One Manchester, describes its purpose as: Creating opportunities · Transforming communities · Changing lives · Providing quality homes · Ambitious · Connected · Trustworthy A recent move by the company unfortunately calls most of these into question - apart from “changing lives”. Making a long term resident homeless and destitute would certainly be life-changing for him. Please follow the link below to the video of Cae explaining his desperate situation. Please don't delay! Watch the video today. We've got 11 days to challenge this decision to save Cae's home and future livelihood. We urge you to take 10 minutes to watch this. We are running out of time to help Cae get justice! https://youtu.be/9rwlO9DzDvk

This is an international problem, which met with an international solution - and Britain must join the international condemnation of America's terrible, selfish decision. We do not want to live in a world dominated by bullies. We do not want to live in a Britain too scared to do anything America doesn't want. We demand leadership that makes us proud to be British. If Theresa May cannot condemn America's decision to condemn our planet, will she ever stand up for anything? British people stand up for others, and we stand up for what we believe in. We do not want a Prime Minister who licks the boots of the American president. Theresa May must show strong leadership and sign the international letter condemning Donald Trump and his abandonment of the Paris agreement.

Currently in England,Scotland and Northern Ireland to apply for a Blue Badge you have to have a walking difficulty or be registered blind unlike Wales.The lack of such an entitlement in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland is blatantly discriminatory and contravenes Article 20 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities UNCRPD, the right to personal mobility. The current situation exposes people with a cognitive impairment and their carers to real risks, excludes them from many activities, and threatens progress on the Government’s commitment to dementia friendly communities. A carer would have to let a person living with dementia get out of the car while they park and risk them becoming distracted and wandering away before they get out of the car and getting lost, this happened in a local supermarket car park and the person living with dementia was missing for 2 hours and needed a police search to find them

The trans community have suffered a lot over generations, and one of the issues is the price and accessibility of binders. Binders are usually sourced online at a high price rate because of the shipping and manufacturing, as well as most of them being made in America. This makes it significantly difficult for working class or unemployed trans men to find a cheaper alternative for their wellbeing. Binders are sold on Amazon and Ebay at lower prices, however in my experience, they are not very reliable and well made. I believe that as a gender non-conforming individual who uses binders myself, we should not have to pay for something that helps us feel more comfortable and helps with d***horia. Waiting lists for surgery for the trans community is very long and can take up to a certain amount of years. Surely, there should be a free service that helps until the surgery is finalised. Some trans people choose not to have surgery and that is completely their choice, but they should have access to good quality, free binders on the NHS that they can use everyday and feel themselves. If they can fund sexual health, then they can fund mental health. I believe that giving this opportunity to the trans and non-binary community will promote intersectionality, benefit mental health, and may even save lives.

The council ignore resident concerns and is intent on pressing forward despite the transformation of our Winchmore hill into an ugly, congested, concrete jungle with decimated natural beauty and failing business. Enfield council presented false statements and visual plans of green lanes in their 'consultation for the cycle lane scheme - on the drawings no mention was made of tearing up and ripping out ten mature trees along our green lanes to date - and more to come.The residents of Winchmore hill did not agree to the replacement of beautiful mature trees with grey slabs of concrete - 'improving public spaces ' in the council's words. No effort has been made to protect the trees at all despite claims to the contrary . Worryingly letters have been put in local communications to inform residents of more trees 'necessary' to be removed . These were not presented as needing removal in the 'consultation' plans. We live in Winchmore hill because we chose to live amongst greenery and historical mature trees.

People like me were invited to the UK in 2009 to study for a MSc Physiotherapy well before the 35K salary threshold came into existence in 2016. The immigration rule at the time stated we were given 2 years’ visa (PSW) to find a permanent job and if we were able to find a permanent job, we were eligible for indefinite leave to remain if we completed 5 years in our permanent job and our employer still needed us. However, because of this new law, only those people who are earning more than £35,000 on a single contracted salary will be eligible to apply for leave to remain. This law will only discourage people to work for the public-sector organisations such as the NHS where achieving 35K salary within the first 5 years of employment is nearly impossible unless the employee is working in London. People like me who are working 7 days a week and earning well above 35K over the past 2 years with overtime will have to leave their permanent senior physiotherapist NHS job and move to the private sector to fulfil this salary threshold. After the Royal College of Nursing highlighted the impact of this law on the nurses staffing level the Home Office have exempted all nurses from this law however, other important professions such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, many doctors, IT professionals and many engineers are not exempted. We do respect the government’s idea of training UK citizens but they must understand that training them takes time and needs senior staff to train them. Due to our job role, we now provide clinical education to university students and juniors. Also, moving trained people like us from Birmingham to London/private sector will have no impact on immigration however it will only cost money to the NHS to employ more locum staff. The Charted Society of Physiotherapy argues that 500 additional physiotherapists are needed UK-wide each year up to 2020 to meet the demand, with services already facing supply shortages. In the year 2015, Health Education England, a government body, cut the number of physiotherapy training places in England alone by 6.2 per cent, 95 fewer places than the previous year. There were just 1448 NHS-funded training places for the 2016/17 intake. Also due to NHS bursaries cuts and 14% pay cuts to the NHS employees in real terms, less people will be inclined towards health professional courses hence it will be a wise decision to bring the threshold to 28K (average UK salary) so that the Tier 2 visa holders who are already working will be able to continue their work in the UK. We started a petition earlier on this issue #anand35k which gained lot of popularity and 13,346 signatures but due to the general election, our deadline was brought forward by 9 weeks and we had to stop our campaign. I have had various BBC radio, news agencies interview but my most popular one was the BBC Midlands interview which had 338K views in 1 week on their Facebook page. https://youtu.be/w8BYaeKMEEA I personally feel that this law is disrespecting the service we have provided by working 7 days a week, paying our taxes, national insurance, NHS surcharge (only paid by non-EU nationals) and I have never claimed any benefit. I hope we win this time otherwise the NHS and many big companies will be losing experienced trained staff. It will not do justice to the employers who have spent so much money on our training and it will be an injustice to the people who have made their home in the city they are living in.

Aida Emilianna Safari, aged 53, is here in the UK to escape from political persecution in the Congo (DRC). She was a propagandist against Joseph Kabila and was imprisoned from 2005-2006 until her murdered husband’s political allies arranged for her successful escape from prison in 2006. She has been in the UK since 2006. She is now on her fourth lawyer who is acting pro bono to secure her release. In the meantime, on 17 December 2016 Aida’s older sister and nephew were killed in a grenade attack. Joseph Kabila’s reign of terror continues. Aida cannot return home to a country that has already falsely imprisoned her for being part of the opposition to a brutal government.