It’s election time! And a chance to make sure those canvassing for your vote address the issues you care about. Find out – not only where your local candidates stand on human rights issues – but whether they will commit to campaigning in a tolerant and respectful manner.

During the election campaign – ask for tolerance and respect

Hate speech and intolerance are on the rise. A healthy society needs a tolerant democracy. The conduct of the election campaign is a good place to start. Ask your candidates:

“As a candidate in this election, will you …

1. Use respectful language in your campaign?
2. Stand for a society that is open and diverse?
3. Challenge those who use stereotypes and prejudice?”

After the election – ask for a Parliament that values and protects our precious rights

Ask your candidates:

“As my Member of Parliament, will you work to …

1. Safeguard existing equality and human rights laws?
2. Provide better support for survivors of modern day slavery?
3. Address hate crime and discrimination suffered by minority groups?
4. Ensure people cannot be held in immigration detention for more than 28 days?”

Download our full briefing here.

And read our analysis of the manifestos here.

In these briefings you will find background to each of the areas as well as questions you can ask your local candidates.

Your parliamentary candidates – who are they, and how can you contact them?

You can find details of all your local candidates here and here.

The more candidates who are asked about human rights issues the more we will be sending a message about which issues matter to us.

Tweet a tweet!

You can tweet at your candidates and ask if they support any of the issues highlighted. You can use this website to help you find the right twitter profile. Not sure what to tweet? We’ll be tweeting out our election asks and you are more than welcome to retweet those or use some of these templates:

• (Dear @XXX,) As a candidate in my constituency will you protect existing equality and #humanrights laws when we leave the EU?
• (Dear @XXX,) If elected will you protect human rights by defending the #HumanRightsAct and the European Convention on #HumanRights?
• (Dear @XXX,) Survivors of human trafficking are falling through gaps in the system, will you help us improve support for survivors of #modernslavery?
• Dear @XXX,) Hate crime is rising, will you address #hatecrime and discrimination faced by minority groups?
• (Dear XXX,) Did you know that UK locks up migrants indefinitely? If elected, will you support a time limit on immigration #detention? #Time4aTimeLimit

Hustle at a husting!

Find out where hustings are taking place in your local area and ask the candidates if they support our policy asks.

You might also get a knock on the door from local campaigners. If that happens, take the opportunity to ask about the issues that matter to you.

Ask your friends and family to do the same!

Let us know about any responses.

Had a response from a local candidates? Let us know, it will help us hold them to account going forward.  Contact us on email at [email protected]

And finally … don’t forget to vote!