Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland
People at the Centre

Become a member

Being Human: New resource on building a human rights culture in Scotland

  • Area of Work: The ALLIANCE
  • Type: News Item
  • Published: 28th August 2026

This new resource contains key priorities for a Scotland grounded in human rights.

On 14 May 2026, an event was held in Glasgow as part of the Being Human series that explored what a human rights culture in Scotland could look like and to identify the human rights priorities for the next five years of the Scottish Parliament. The event was delivered by the ALLIANCE’s Health and Social Care Academy  programme and the Human Rights Consortium Scotland (HRCS).  

Speakers at the event included lived experience perspectives from Aiteal Trust, Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS), Care Inspectorate Scotland and Third Sector Human Rights and Equalities (THRE). 

Participants in attendance shared their lived experiences and discussed what needs to happen to enable people from all walks of life to understand and recognise their rights, experience them fully in everyday life and access support when their rights are not upheld.  

Participation, collaboration and accountability were identified as key features of a human rights culture, a Human Rights Bill for Scotland being a particularly important step in this process. A call from the event was for the soon-to-be announced Programme for Government to include a commitment to introducing a Human Rights Bill in the next parliamentary session.  

This comes after the 2026 ALLIANCE conference where a shared vision for Scotland was articulated as one which is “grounded in human rights, shaped by inclusive narratives, committed to tackling inequalities, and driven by hope, participation and community power”.   

The resource summarises key insights and priorities highlighted at the event and can be downloaded below. 

This event was part of the Academy’s Being Human series which explores the importance of embedding human rights into health and social care policy and practice. Keep a look out for future events in the series. 

Resources:

Being Human: Building a human rights culture in Scotland (PDF)
Download PDF Document (698 KB)
Being Human: Building a human rights culture in Scotland (Word Document)
Download Word Document (3 MB)
Download all document resources

End of page.

You may also like:

Back to all news