A mother with lived experience of Britain’s child protection system is calling for a government inquiry into whether family court decisions are breaching children’s and parents’ right to family life.

A sharp increase in recent years in the number of children being removed from parents and placed in state care in England and Wales in the wake of government figures showing that maltreatment and abuse have plateaued for decades has caused concern among human rights experts.

The Human Rights Act, ratified by the UK, includes Article 8 which protects a person’s right to and respect for their private life and family life, and their ability to live their life privately without government interference.

Victoria Hudson, who campaigns to raise awareness about the way women and children who suffer domestic violence are treated in the family courts, asked the Joint Committee on Human Rights to launch an inquiry into current-day family court decisions to investigate whether the judgments and orders are breaching families’ human rights.

The call includes a request to the committee to look at current forced adoption practices in Britain, alongside its recently launched review into forced adoptions which took place between 1949 and 1976.

Victoria is also asking the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to review her own family law case.

The call has been published on FiLiA’s website, a charity which promotes the women’s liberation movement. The web page invites readers to support Victoria’s campaign by emailing Harriet Harman MP, chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, and requesting that she undertakes a review of recent family court decisions and their impact on the rights of children and birth mothers to family life.

Additionally, supporters have been invited to email Lord David Wolfson MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the MOJ, to ask for Victoria’s case to be reviewed.

The page offers lots of useful links, and includes letter templates for readers who want to support one or more of the calls to action, which you can access here.