Scottish Human Rights Commission publishes first State of the Nation report
- Area of Work: Policy and Research
- Type: News Item
- Published: 10th December 2024
SHRC publishes State of the Nation report examining the civil and political rights of all people in Scotland.
On Human Rights Day 2024, the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has published their first State of the Nation report.
The report examines the extent to which 14 civil and political rights are being adequately upheld for all people in Scotland. It provides a snapshot over the past year of a range of issues causing concern to people’s rights to justice, privacy, freedom of expression and to live free from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, as protected by the Human Rights Act 1998.
The findings are drawn from the Commission’s human rights monitoring work over 2023-24, including our Spotlight projects, and our reporting to international human rights bodies within the United Nations and Council of Europe.
2024 has been another turbulent year for human rights, including people’s civil and political rights. Whilst there has undoubtedly been a stronger human rights narrative in Scotland over the current session of Parliament, the reality of people’s lives does not reflect a human rights approach in how they experience public services and institutions. This is reflected in the Scottish Government deprioritising it’s long-promised Human Rights Bill at a moment where human rights and access to justice feel more fragile in Scotland than ever.
The SHRC is deeply concerned about the scale of issues across such a broad range of rights. In other areas, where the law requires decision makers to carry out at times complicated or sensitive balancing acts to ensure everyone’s rights are protected, they can lack the underpinning knowledge to properly take into account the circumstances of people who are the most marginalised, and who continue to be the furthest from justice. Understanding the impacts of marginalisation and inequality is an essential part of taking a human rights-based approach.
To address the human rights issues identified within the report, the Scottish Government should further develop its own infrastructure to prevent their occurrence and meaningfully respond. This should include delivering the long awaited tracker and repository tool, and progressing the actions in Scotland’s Second National Human Rights Action Plan (SNAP 2).
You can read a short briefing and the full report on the dedicated page of our website at www.scottishhumanrights.com.
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