By Professor Alan Miller, Chair, Scottish Human Rights Commission

As we mark International Human Rights Day 2010 it is timely to assess Scotland’s balance sheet on human rights given the extreme pressures on the public purse.

The past year has seen significant development of human rights ‘assets’, as well as important ‘liabilities’ on human rights in Scotland. While we have seen increasing recognition of Scotland’s international human rights role, and increasing awareness of the relevance of human rights to social care for older people, the unfortunate trend of suggesting that the rights of the ‘undeserving’ are being placed ahead of the rights of the ‘deserving’ has continued in public debate. It is this perception that most risks undermining the empowering potential of human rights for everyone and frustrating the achievement of a human rights culture. It was Mary Robinson who most clearly framed the challenge to the Commission and everyone else who strives for the creation of a sustainable human rights culture in Scotland. As she said:

“strengthen human rights by making it more user-friendly, more human, by linking dignity and rights to communities, making human rights meaningful to the marginalised, to those who feel most excluded, the most denied voices both in our own society and internationally. We will then have achieved what translating (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) into many languages doesn’t necessarily deliver. Progress.”

With these words as our guide, how does Scotland’s human rights balance sheet for 2010 read?

Assets

Scotland’s place on human rights internationally

Scotland has gained a place on the international map of human rights in 2010. The Commission, established with vision by the Scottish Parliament, was recognised within the UN system earlier this year as a “Category A” institution which can now fully engage with the UN human rights system. The Scottish Parliament was also the venue for the 10th International Conference of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), hosted by the Commission. The Conference brought together NHRIs from all over the world and was the first UN sponsored conference to take place in Scotland. The Edinburgh Declaration, agreed at the event, commits all NHRIs to work together with the UN in increasing corporate accountability towards human rights, and is now playing a part in advancing human rights internationally.

Human Dignity and Care

2010 has also seen far greater appreciation across the care sector of the relevance of human rights to the provision of care services for older people, in residential care and home care settings. The Care About Rights project, led by the Commission in partnership with Age Scotland, the Care Commission and Scottish Care, has won broad support from users and providers alike. The project has begun training thousands of care sector personnel across the country.

Likewise, the Scottish Procurement Directorate, following a consultation response from the Commission, has recognised the importance of integrating human rights standards and principles into its new Social Care Procurement Guidance. As the contracting out of public services continues to increase, the introduction of human rights into the process of procurement has significance that extends beyond Scotland. By balancing out the previous emphasis on value for money with social and human rights considerations, this guidance can significantly contribute to improving the quality of care through increased safeguards and the participation of service users throughout the procurement process.

Liabilities

Right to access a solicitor in custody (“Cadder”)

In trying to address a human rights deficit, Scotland has created a human rights liability by inappropriately using emergency procedures to pass a law which, whilst belatedly providing a right of legal assistance to suspects in police detention, increases the length of allowable detention periods for suspects from 6 to 24 hours. This was in the absence of any evidence prior to the Parliamentary vote that this is necessary. Although there is now a review underway led by Lord Carloway, with which the Commission will be involved, the failure to identify and address the deficit in human rights protection has contributed to concern among victims of crime and in the media about cases which are being dropped as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision, which was both predictable and avoidable.

Distinctions between “deserving” and “undeserving” rights holders

There is a disturbing and discernable trend within Scotland, and indeed the UK, to promote a hierarchy of “deserving” and “undeserving” members of society, to accept internationally recognised human rights for some but not for everyone. This is often applied to the detriment of unpopular groups within society including members of Gypsy/Traveller communities, prisoners, suspected terrorists, asylum seekers, religious and ethnic minorities, social security claimants – the list goes on.

Perhaps the challenge then for us all in these coming years is to put into practice the realisation that human rights are more than a fair-weather friend. They are for all seasons and for everyone. We can and we need to do better.

Human rights forecasting: what’s in store for 2011?

Financial challenges and vulnerable people

There is, and will be in the years to come, an ever increasing need to take the human rights of everyone, particularly the most vulnerable, into account in taking decisions on the allocation of resources. There are minimum thresholds of human dignity which human rights law requires must be respected in all decisions. Taking human rights impacts properly into account provides an objective and fair basis for making difficult decisions on the prioritisation of scarce resources. Rights set the red lines below which practice must not fall in any circumstances – irrespective or the available resources - and they contain pragmatic criteria which can help in determining when restrictions are justified and proportionate. The Commission will assist in this process of bringing human rights into the centre of policy development and decision-taking at all levels of governance.

Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights

The Commission is carrying out a “mapping” exercise to understand the extent to which our internationally recognised human rights are being realised in Scotland, to identify the gaps as well as the good practices. This is a key step in human rights forecasting – identifying the current and future human rights climate. On Human Rights Day 2011 the Commission will launch a report on the State of Human Rights in Scotland. We will use this evidence base to establish an inclusive process to develop Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights.