Our State of the Nation reports aim to support the Scottish Parliament and other public bodies to understand and meet their obligations under human rights law. At the national level, monitoring is essential to progress recommendations, decisions and judgments from accountability bodies that need to be addressed by the Scottish Government, Parliament and other public sector bodies.
We hope that these reports will also be useful to civil society, human rights defenders and rights holders in Scotland.
What we've done so far
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The 2025 report focuses on economic, social and cultural rights, the rights that ensure people can live a dignified life, like the rights to adequate housing, health, social security, food, and fair working conditions.
It features the lived experiences of four rights holders: Anne, Derek, Nada and Shamus. Their stories - told in their own words - are a reminder of the very real ways that economic, social and cultural rights shape our daily lives.
The report found that economic, social and cultural rights remain out of reach for many people in Scotland. Across the country, people are struggling to afford food, fuel and housing or to access timely, good-quality public services.
We highlight ten areas of urgent concern where Scotland is falling short of its human rights obligations.
- The provision of healthcare across Scotland is not always available when and where people need it
- The support for people with learning disabilities and autism to live in their own homes is inadequate
- Disability-related social security entitlements do not provide a decent standard of living for disabled people and are at risk of retrogression
- A housing crisis is denying people across Scotland access to safe, affordable and adequate housing
- Changes to the UK welfare system disadvantage the most marginalised people and families
- High levels of food insecurity and unaffordability mean that people in Scotland are hungry and not fully nourished
- Caregiving responsibilities for children, disabled people and older people are not fairly distributed or recognise
- Basic daily essentials that keep us safe and warm are unaffordable
- People cannot access effective justice or remedies when their ESC rights are not realised
- The budget allocated to food programmes, social security, housing, health, education, employment services and other areas related to ESC rights is inadequate
Have 5 minutes?
Have 5 minutes? Read Anne, Derek, Nada and Shamus's stories below:
Have more time?
Read the 2025 State of the Nation report. Available as a PDF, an accessible Word document, an Easy Read and in BSL.
Read the report
Main report (PDF)
Main report (Word)
Easy Read
BSL
Civil and Political Rights
The Commission's first annual State of the Nation report to the Scottish Parliament was published on Human Rights Day – 10th December – 2024 and focuses on civil and political rights. The report covers the period from September 2023 to September 2024, following the established timeframe of the Programme of Government cycle.
The report focuses on civil and political rights, the rights that protect people from harms by the state and rights to participate in decisions fairly. They include access to justice, fair trials, fair processes and the treatment of people in prison and other places where they might be detained.
Concerns highlighted in the report include barriers in accessing justice, including chronic challenges in the legal aid system, failure to implement recommendations to protect the right to life and protection from inhumane treatment and punishment in places of detention, and emerging evidence that Scotland is not meeting human rights standards concerning deinstitutionalisation of people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people.
Have 5 minutes?
Read our Briefing to Parliament on the report.
Have more time?
Read the full State of the Nation report below. Available as an accessible PDF.
Publications
What we will do next
We will publish State of the Nation reports annually on or before Human Rights Day in December. Next year’s report will look at will focus on the rights of specific groups.
How to find out more
For further information, contact us on hello@scottishhumanrights.com
For media enquiries about this project, please contact media@scottishhumanrights.com
About our monitoring role
Under our founding legislation, the Scottish Commission for Human Rights Act 2006, the SHRC has a general duty to promote and encourage best practice for human rights.
An important part of this duty is monitoring how human rights are being experienced in Scotland. Independent monitoring can:
- highlight where things are going wrong early so that governments and parliaments can step in address or prevent violations of rights
- hold governments and parliaments accountable for their actions or failures to act by applying a consistent framework over time and regularly reminding them of their legal obligations
- promote transparency, collaboration and the rule of law, including through making independent conclusions and recommendations
Traditionally, the SHRC has done most of its human rights monitoring through our international treaty monitoring work, which involves assessing the impact of specific treaties and reporting our findings to international human rights bodies like the United Nations and the Council of Europe. While this is important and necessary work, these reports are limited by a narrow focus on specific treaties.
As Scotland’s National Human Rights Institution, the SHRC is uniquely placed to take a big picture view of human rights, the gaps and progress. State of the Nation reports knit together all the recent data we have on human rights in Scotland from international treaty monitoring work, as well as from our Spotlight Projects, to provide a bigger and clearer picture of how people are experiencing their rights in Scotland today.