My brother and his girlfriend split up a year ago and they have a lovely 11 month old daughter together, but her mother makes it really difficult for my brother to see her what rights does he have to see his daughter? He has no history of violence or anything like that she is just using my niece as a weapon :(

Does your brother have a court order for visitation set up?

If not, that is what he needs to do. Go to court and request visitation. Then his time with his daughter will be court ordered, and if the mother refuses he can hold her in contempt.

If and when the mother does not allow the father to see the child according to the court order of visitation, he can take her back to court for being in contempt

There are really two questions here. The first is what rights does he have. The answer to that is the rights of ANY father. The unasked question is how does he get to exercise those rights. And the answer to that is through family court.

Is he listed on the birth certificate? I gather they were never married so when they split there was no reason to go to court for a divorce. But the child WAS the reason to go to court. He needs to file a petition for visitation rights. The mother and her family will have an opportunity to show why he shouldn't get them. But unless they can prove he's a danger, that's not likely to happen.

However, if he does open this can of worms by going to court, they may request child support and other issues.