Discrimination continues to rob individuals of their dignity and rights. This Human Rights Day, TogetherintheUK tells one such story to inspire action.
| World Human Rights Day takes place on the 10th of December 2024, and it aims to help educate the world about human rights and address this global issue. This year’s theme is Equality – Reducing Inequalities and Advancing Human Rights. |
The Human Rights Act was passed by the UK Parliament in 1998 and took effect in 2000. It incorporates into domestic law the European Convention on Human Rights, which, in turn, draws on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights composed after WWII and the Holocaust. Today, with a growing environment of animosity from some people towards migrants, refugees, Muslims, Black people and other minority groups, some people are not awarded the right to be treated equally or respectfully.
This is the story of how the most basic of human rights, Article 14, The Right to be Free from Discrimination, was denied to an elderly lady, leaving her nervous and angry. Catheline kindly shared her story with TogetherintheUK but was fearful of using her full name; however, she shared that she had come to the sad realisation that it was the colour of her skin that brought out the hateful, racist attacks by her neighbours who felt entitled to abuse her human right to live peacefully.
From birth, Catheline’s journey has not been easy, and sadly, now in her senior years, at a time when she should be able to enjoy life, the racist attitude of some people has made her life harder, with the human rights she is entitled to denied.
She was born in Zimbabwe, a former British colony that was only formally granted independence by the British government in April 1980. She then lived through Robert Mugabe’s authoritarian regime until she was finally able to flee to the UK in 2003.
As a child in Zimbabwe, she dreamed of becoming a nurse, but at that time in Zimbabwe, marriage was considered more important than education for young girls. So, at 16, Catheline was married, had the first of four children before her 18th birthday and was divorced by 28. While she struggled to raise four children alone, she was determined that each of them (two boys and two girls) would receive an education as she “did not want them to be like me”. Only when her children were grown up, fully educated and had left Zimbabwe did she journey to the UK seeking asylum in 2003, being granted in 2009 and finally citizenship in 2021. Catheline was determined to make her way in the UK, earn an income, and contribute to the development of UK society. She has earned NVQs in social and health care, was employed as a Support Healthcare worker, a beauty and skincare advisor and is a published author of The Super Power of the Girl Child.
Catheline became aware of the growing resentment amongst some people regarding migrants and refugees following several incidents which coincided with the protests and rioting. The first was particularly cruel and disrespectful. Catheline deeply fears dogs – in her words, a “phobia”. She would typically ask the owners to leash the dog or take it inside. But in the week of the riots, a neighbour stood outside her gate with his dog unleashed, and despite Catheline asking him to help her by taking the dog away, he continued to stand and ignore her. Only when a delivery driver noticed her distress and asked if she needed help could she leave her home.
The second incident happened shortly afterwards. Feeling upset following her encounter with the neighbour, Catheline decided to take advantage of the good weather, sit in the communal gardens, and watch the video recording of the funeral mass of her aunt, who had died in Zimbabwe. The trouble started when two children began to play with her phone on the tripod. Naturally, she told them to stop, and while they continued to pester her for a few more minutes, they eventually went inside. What upset Catheline more was that there were some women in the garden at the same time, and instead of helping her, they just looked at her in a way that made her feel unwelcome.
The next day, she went to sit in the garden again, but she explained what happened next as “explosive”. Two young boys came into the garden and were playing around, and the younger boy went behind Catheline and jumped on her back. She jumped up in fright and was very startled. While the young boy apologised, she asked him why he had done that. Unfortunately, the older boy then shouted at her, calling her stupid for not hearing that the other boy had said sorry, and he continued to berate her using foul language. This behaviour from children to any person is unacceptable, but to an elderly lady, it is atrocious. However, this was not the end as a woman came and sat down beside her – not to comfort her or check if she was alright but to call her names and then demand “that she go back to where she had come from”. Feeling very threatened, Catheline called the police. Still, she was unable to return to the safety of her flat as a small crowd of adults and children and two dogs unleashed had gathered around the gate to her apartment. She felt so intimidated by the noise and the dogs that she had to remain in the garden until the police arrived. When the police arrived, one escorted her to her flat and promised to return, but she did not. There was no follow-up or checking in on this elderly lady until she called them the next day to ask for the police incident number. Eventually, she was advised that an “ASBO” (anti-social behaviour order now replaced by Community Protection Notice (CPN) or Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO)) would be issued to the relevant individuals should another incident occur. Catheline feels very let down by the lack of follow-up to her by the police and the fact that she must endure another ordeal before they take any action.
I asked her why she thought this had happened to her, and she answered without hesitation, “the colour of my skin”. Catheline feels disappointed not just with the behaviour of the adults in her community but also in the failure of the police to look after her and then the response of the housing committee that they could not help as “their hands were tied” – a statement she still finds hard to understand.
Catheline now wears an emergency alarm and has fitted a doorbell camera as she is frightened that someone will throw an incendiary device through her letter box. That is no way for an older person to live just because of the colour of their skin, and it disrespects the right not to be discriminated against for any reason.
Perhaps the saddest and most telling of all our conversations was when Catheline spoke about her skin colour.
One thing I have realised is that it is my colour that bothers people. What difference will it make if I move to a different house? People will still look at me and think she is Black, and they will still look at me and think she is an immigrant. They will think I am coming to take their jobs, but I have worked since I had the right to work, paid my taxes, and volunteered, and I have been a positive person in society. The truth is that they still consider that someone who is my colour is an immigrant. For them, it does not matter how many generations Black people have lived and worked in the UK; some white people still see us as immigrants. We still have a long way to go before some people accept us as a valid part of UK society.
Sadly, Catheline’s story is just one of many instances where human rights are denied based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. It’s unsettling that some individuals believe they are entitled to greater rights than their neighbours. Every member of society has a responsibility not only to understand their own human rights but also to recognise and uphold the equal rights of others.
#HumanRights. #Equality. #SocialJustice.
To read more:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
European Convention on Human Rights
To read more about the lives and impacts of migrants on UK society, go to TogetherintheUK.
To purchase a copy of Hear Our Stories, An Anthology of Migrant Writings, compiled by TogetherintheUK, go to TGIUK
Previous TGIUK articles for Human Rights Day
Rights for All: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 75 – Dec 2023
StandUp4HumanRights – Celebrating Human Rights Day – Dec 2022
