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Being Human: human rights lecture with Professor Alan Miller

  • Area of Work: The ALLIANCE
  • Type: News Item
  • Published: 18th October 2022
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Professor Alan Miller joined us for the latest instalment in the Being Human series, asking the question "what does being human mean?"

In the latest instalment of the Health and Social Care Academy’s Being Human lecture series, Alan Miller, Professor of Practice in Human Rights Law at the University of Strathclyde, explored the importance of embedding human rights into practice within health and social care.  

The lecture focused on human rights leadership in Scotland and the forthcoming Human Rights (Incorporation) Bill. The discussion was framed around three central questions:

  1. What do we need to be human?
  2. How do we achieve being human and human dignity in society?
  3. What leadership is required to help create an environment where human dignity is encouraged to flourish?   

To answer these questions, Professor Miller explored the necessity of human rights being embedded within the context of human dignity:

“Human dignity is the essence of being human”.  

To be able to live with dignity, we need to be able to enjoy our human rights. Professor Miller proposed that the fundamental requirement of people living out this enjoyment is the right to participate. Human rights leadership should enable individuals to fully live in and feel part of the community to which they belong. 

The discussion touched on the evolution and history of human rights law and provided a foundation to understand the differences between the human rights trajectory in Scotland and at Westminster. Scotland is moving to incorporate the whole, all encompassing range of internationally recognised human rights whereas the Westminster approach, Professor Miller suggested, is regressive and exclusive.

Professor Miller urged everyone to engage in the preparation, development and implementation of the forthcoming Bill so that we can help build a society centred on human dignity. As Professor Miller cites, “it’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness”.

Watch the full lecture (this link will take you away from our website).

Join the ALLIANCE’s human rights mailing list to keep up to date with our work on human rights and opportunities to get involved by emailing gillian.mcelroy@alliance-scotland.org.uk

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