A defining moment for human rights leadership in and by Scotland

By Alan Miller - posted on 28 June 2023

Two new proposals on the place of human rights in our society.

The Scottish Government has published for public debate two proposals on the place of human rights in our society.

One is a formal public consultation paper on a proposed Human Rights Bill during the current session of the Scottish Parliament and therefore in the context of devolution.

The other outlines the role of human rights within a proposed written constitution in the context of Scotland becoming independent.

The key issue in both proposals.

The key issue is that both proposals define internationally recognised human rights as needing to be at the centre of our society, whether devolved or independent.

The call of the UN to all countries.

At the same time, in marking the 75^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN has given a call for all countries to cooperate and strengthen their efforts to implement international recognised human rights as the most effective way of addressing the multiple urgent challenges facing our inter-dependent world.

A defining moment for human rights leadership and recognising the unifying principle.

We have then reached a defining moment for human rights leadership in and by Scotland.

Whilst respecting our individual constitutional preferences, let us all join in this public debate about the kind of society we want. In doing so let us recognise and embrace the unifying principle of a shared support for human dignity and equal rights for all – whether under devolution or independence – and, above all, in our inter-dependent world.

Public consultation on a Human Rights Bill.

The Scottish Government has published a consultation paper on a Human Rights Bill to be introduced during this current session of the Scottish Parliament.

The proposed Bill is to incorporate a broad range of UN human rights treaties including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which contains among others the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. All the other UN treaties to be incorporated by the Bill – on women, on race and on disability - are founded upon human dignity and equal rights for all. The Bill is also to introduce the right to a healthy environment which just last year was declared as a human right by the UN General Assembly.

The scope and protection of the rights within the Bill will of course need to be within the competence of the Scottish Parliament and subject to the constraints of devolution.

Human rights within an independence constitution.

The Scottish Government has also published a briefing paper on the place of human rights within an independent written constitution.

It proposes that the incorporation of UN human rights treaties be broadened in scope beyond the current devolution constraints and encompass all areas of public policy and life. It also proposes that human rights be protected by the written constitution and be above the fray of everyday politics.

75^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

These published human rights commitments of the Scottish Government come at a time when the world is marking the 75^th anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Declaration itself came at a previous defining moment following the experiences of World War Two, the Holocaust and the Great Depression. Its affirmation of human dignity and equal rights for all forms the basis of all subsequent UN human rights treaties.

In his opening address to the 53^rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, declared that the world is now again at a critical juncture, beset with multiple contemporary challenges, when all countries must increase cooperation and strengthen their efforts to implement the UN human rights treaties.

A defining moment for human rights leadership in and by Scotland.

It is then timely that we have reached this defining moment for human rights leadership in and by Scotland.

This is the result of an increasingly confident, ambitious and internationalist approach towards human rights since devolution. The journey has been given impetus by Brexit and the weakening of European human rights protections and given urgency by the pandemic which exposed the lack of economic and social resilience and structural inequalities in our society.

We have then reached a moment when we need to define what kind of society it is that we want to build. Human rights demonstrably need to be and are now becoming central in our society, be this under devolution or under independence, as well as in the broader world we want to live in.

Human rights under devolution.

The proposed Bill is by far the biggest step to date on Scotland’s human rights journey and would place human dignity and equal rights for all at the centre of our decision-making.

The consultation paper on the Bill takes a maximalist approach – protecting human rights to the greatest extent possible - within devolutionary limitations. Whilst many people may view these limitations with a degree of frustration, they are nevertheless self-evident truths which need to be recognised by the proposed Bill.

Human rights under independence.

By the same token, even though independence may not be the constitutional preference for many there are equally self-evident truths that an independence constitution would be able to broaden the scope and deepen the protection of human rights.

A unifying principle.

A unifying principle which we can all embrace is that human dignity and equal rights for all will become central to our society be it within the here and now of devolution or within independence in the future if that is the democratically expressed will of the majority in a lawful referendum.

We can all also share a pride in Scotland demonstrating its support for the reaffirmation of human dignity and equal rights for all in our interdependent world as it faces such contemporary challenges as conflict and poverty, the existential threat of climate change and the urgent necessity of climate justice.

No matter our individual constitutional preferences, we can then all embrace this unifying principle whilst participating in the current public consultation on the Bill.

The next step is the effective implementation of the Bill.

Whilst incorporation of UN human rights treaties by the Bill is a big step it is nevertheless only a step. The next step is the effective implementation of the Bill.

This includes the need to ensure public ownership of and ability to exercise the rights, the ability of public bodies to carry out their duties and the availability of access to legal remedies as a last resort when necessary.

We will in this way build a human rights culture enabling us all to lead our lives in dignity.

It is this next step of the effective implementation of human rights and improving the lives of everyone which will be the real stuff of human rights leadership in and by Scotland.

However, as one of those who has helped to lead Scotland’s human rights journey over the past few decades and who has also worked in many countries which do not enjoy the same democratic space for public debate that we have, let me emphasise that we all together have a shared responsibility to make the most of this defining moment for human rights leadership in and by Scotland.

 

Alan Miller is Professor of Practice in Human Rights at the University of Strathclyde, a senior consultant with the UNDP Crisis Bureau and Chair of the National Collaborative on drug related deaths.

He was elected and re-elected unanimously by the Scottish Parliament as the inaugural Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission and served at the invitation of the then First Minister as the Independent Co-Chair of the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership whose recommendations form the basis of the proposed Human Rights Bill.

He is a former Special Envoy of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions and former inaugural Chair of the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions.