Scottish Government launches Equality and Human Rights Mainstreaming Strategy
- Area of Work: The ALLIANCE
- Type: News Item
- Published: 16th December 2025
Strategy published to place equality and human rights at the core of government operations
The Scottish Government has published its Equality and Human Rights Mainstreaming Strategy, supported by an Action Plan and Toolkit, setting out how equality and human rights will be embedded across government and promoted throughout the wider public sector.
The strategy provides a practical framework to ensure equality and human rights are central to policy making, service delivery and resource allocation, with the aim of building fairer systems that work better for everyone in Scotland. It has been developed collaboratively with stakeholders and responds to consultation feedback calling for clearer alignment of tools, reduced duplication and stronger practical support. The ALLIANCE responded to this consultation and you can view our response in the resources below.
Mainstreaming, the Scottish Government emphasises, means placing equality and human rights at the core of everyday process, recognising that they affect everything an organisation does, from planning to service delivery, and ensuring they are integral to how public services operate across Scotland.
Six key drivers for change underpin the Strategy: leadership, accountability and transparency, an effective regulatory and policy environment, use of evidence and lived experience, enhanced capability and culture, and improved capacity.
Supporting the strategy, the accompanying Action Plan brings together 61 equality and human rights mainstreaming actions from across the Scottish Government into one accessible document. While it does not cover every activity underway, it represents the first time a wide range of mainstreaming actions have been collated in a single place, supporting equality and inclusion in policy and practice.
You can access the strategy at Equality and human rights mainstreaming strategy
And the action plan at Equality and human rights mainstreaming action plan
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