Scottish Human Rights Commission to welcome Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) will welcome the Commissioner for Human Rights from the Council of Europe, Dr Michael O’Flaherty, to Edinburgh on Thursday 10 September 2026 for a special event on poverty as a human rights issue.

The Commissioner will spend time with Members of the Scottish Human Rights Commission before delivering a lecture on the state of human rights in Scotland and across Europe. This will be followed by a panel discussion on addressing poverty as a human rights issue, chaired by Professor Angela O’Hagan, Chair of the SHRC, and featuring Nicola Killean, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, and Satwat Rehman, Chief Executive of One Parent Families Scotland.

Invited stakeholders and human rights defenders from across Scotland will join the event, which follows the publication of the SHRC’s new briefing paper, Poverty and Human Rights in Scotland: How can human rights be used to alleviate poverty?

The paper sets out the SHRC's concerns that the Scottish Government is not meeting its human rights obligations to provide an adequate standard of living, and calls for a coherent, rights based approach to ending poverty.

Professor Angela O’Hagan, Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, said:

“We are delighted to welcome Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dr Michael O’Flaherty to Scotland. Poverty is a human rights issue and is the focus of our work at the Scottish Human Rights Commission this year. The Commissioner’s visit is an opportunity to bring together voices from across Scotland to highlight the reality of poverty in everyday life in Scotland.”

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