The UN Human Rights Framework and Regional Human Rights Frameworks

The Member States of the United Nations and other regional bodies enter into agreements with one another in international law committing to protect, respect and fulfil human rights. These agreements are known as treaties, conventions or covenants. States voluntarily make these commitments and accept binding legal obligations when they join these treaties.

Once a Convention is drafted it is then up to the States to ratify it within their own system. The UK – and therefore Scotland – has signed up to a range of international and regional human rights treaties. These treaties describe the rights that UK has recognised people have under international law:

• Seven of the nine ‘core’ UN Human Rights Treaties
• Council of Europe human rights treaties
• International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions
• International treaties on matters which intersect or are adjacent to human rights such as the Aarhus Convention or the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

In addition to these legal instruments, the UK is also a party to a wide range of non-binding human rights mechanisms, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights or the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

By becoming a party to these instruments, the UK has legal obligations under international law.  However, without additional steps, these obligations do not become legal rights in domestic law. Some States incorporate the Conventions into their legal systems.

So far, the UK, has fully incorporated one international Convention into its legal systems - the European Convention of Human Rights, through the Human Rights Act 1998. The Human Rights Act 1998 sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms that everyone in the UK is entitled to. It came into force in 2000.

Scotland has also incorporated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into the Scottish legal system via the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024. This came into force on 16^th July 2024.

For information on wider work undertaken in Scotland to incorporate other international human rights treaties, please visit our incorporation page.

UN Human Rights Treaties

These are the nine core human rights treaties developed by the UN. The UK has ratified the first seven.

• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
• Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
• Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
• Convention against Torture (CAT)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
• Convention on the Rights of Migrants and their Families (ICMW)
• Convention on the Protection of All Persons for Enforced Disappearance (CPED)

 The United Kingdom is reviewed periodically for its compliance with these treaties by UN Committees made up of special experts.

 As an A-status NHRI, the SHRC has a responsibility to cooperate with these Human Rights Committees. We do this by providing independent and expert evidence and analysis about how human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled in Scotland.  Our responsibility towards international human rights systems and processes comes directly from the Paris Principles, a set of standards endorsed by the UN for NHRIs.

 Every four to five years, the United Kingdom is also subject to Universal Periodic Review (UPR). During the UPR, the UK's record, including its with all treaties and all voluntary human rights commitments, is reviewed by other countries based on international human rights standards. This happens at the UN Human Rights Council based in Geneva.

 More information is available at the Commission's treaty monitoring webpages.