Report published on Integrated Implementation of Scotland’s New Human Rights Framework

In December 2021, the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law launched a series of workshops, entitled: 'Integrated Implementation of Scotland’s New Human Rights Framework', generously funded by a Research Workshops grant from the Royal Society of Edinburgh.  

The research workshops were led by Dr Elaine Webster, Professor Alan Miller, and Professor Nicole Busby (School of Law, University of Glasgow), building on their previous collaborations, most recently in relation to Scotland's National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership. In March 2021, the Scottish Government committed to an ambitious legal framework that will give rise to a new range of duties and a new focus on groups whose rights are the least realised. There will be a public consultation in 2023 prior to the introduction of the Bill to the Scottish Parliament. 

The aim of the workshop series was to explore how academic research and expertise might support Scottish public authorities to achieve effective policy implementation at the intersections of human rights and equality law. The workshops brought together academics and representatives of rights-holders and duty-bearer organisations to explore a case study focused on local authority implementation of the right to adequate housing in Scotland, and to investigate a model for research-informed practice. 

"We have aimed in this workshop series to begin to articulate and unpick what integrated implementation will require and thus what support public authorities will need to achieve this. As legal practitioners and academics, our contribution has been to initiate a conversation about how public authorities in Scotland might effectively achieve effective implementation of connected legal frameworks. Law, underpinned by bedrock values, acts as the regulatory substructure of human rights and equality protections in the international and current national context, and the new Scottish framework will have the same function. We have aimed to promote a connection between the law, processes of legislative integration, and the context in which implementation will occur, both in a policy sense and in an organisational culture and practice sense." (Integrated Implementation of Scotland’s New Human Rights Framework: Workshop Series Findings, October 2022, p. 7).  

The report documents the process and key activities focused on the case study of local authorities and housing, and draws out wider insights and key messages. The report is available here.  

(If you require the report in Word version for accessibility reasons, please email elaine.webster@strath.ac.uk).