Human Rights: back to basics – Digital Gathering 2023 report

On Wednesday 23 February 2023, the ALLIANCE hosted this online workshop dedicated to breaking down barriers around human rights language, and showing delegates the every-day examples of human rights at play. This session was attended by 35 individuals, including rights holders and third sector health and social care organisations.

Maisie Peebles, Chair of this session and Discover Digital Development Officer, first introduced the discussion of the barriers to discussing human rights and the common misconceptions in their practice.

Contributors

Jed Brady joined us as our first contributor from Reach Advocacy, a grassroots charity that provides human rights based advocacy awards. Jed discussed how Reach Advocacy uses a human rights based approach throughout their work, as they believe the only way to create a fairer society to ensure everyone’s human rights are upheld, fulfilled and protected. He spoke about how lived experience of navigating services is deeply embedded within the training they offer.

Lydia Murphy, from The Poverty Alliance, then joined us to introduce her organisation’s Rights in Action project. The Poverty Alliance believes that the existence of poverty is a breach of human rights, and therefore their work involves a lot of human rights awareness within communities. Lydia discussed that community awareness raising avoids to typical legal language of human rights, and shows people what a rights based approach actually looks like in practice.

David Alexander was our next guest speaker from Mydex, an organisation that helps individuals and service providers improve their handling of personal data, with a strong emphasis on a rights based approach. David discussed that there is a fundamental absence of lived experience within many digital designs, and that digital inclusion is not just about widening access, but also about making that access equitable and understandable. Mydex empowers people to be active participants in the control of their data, and how the emphasis on human rights allows this.

Finally, Professor Alan Miller spoke on behalf of his work with the National Collaborative, which aims to integrate human rights into drug and alcohol policy leading to better outcomes for people affected by substance use. Professor Miller discussed how the National Collaborative empowers people to promote their rights front and centre, using a FAIR model and the PANEL principles.

Following these contributions from our guest speakers, we introduced the conversation starting activity of identifying rights being enjoyed, demanded and denied from a graphic image. In breakout rooms, delegates discussed human rights in detail. One group had a conversation about the current polarisation within human rights in current affairs, and how there is not enough lived experience considered in human rights based approaches. Emphasis needs to be made in connecting with grassroots and community projects already in place to ensure human rights are in-touch with people’s reality. Another group focused on human rights and digital inclusion, and how people should not have to make a choice between using devices and basic living essentials. Another way we can make digital inclusion a reality is by linking digital inclusion with heath and social care, by emphasising tech enabled care. This term generally is taken as being overwhelming as people tend to take it as meaning an overly complicated technological approach to care, however, in reality, tech enabled care can be very simple. For example, it could be creating a street WhatsApp group or a local Facebook group.

For any further questions about this session, email: Samantha.buck@alliance-scotland.org.uk

To sign up for the ALLIANCE’s human rights mailing list, email: gillian.mcelroy@alliance-scotland.org.uk

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