Website review

With recent months seeing the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the launch of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, what better time to consider human rights (or should that be human richts?) websites in Scotland?

Scottish Human Rights Commission

www.scottishhumanrights.com

The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) is headed by Professor Alan Miller and has a statutory remit to promote human rights and, in particular, to encourage best practice in relation to human rights (Scottish Commission for Human Rights Act 2006, s 2). In common with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (more of which later), one of the first things it did was jumble up the words in its name – so that the “Commission” was at the end, rather than the beginning. It also takes a “dot com” TLD (top-level domain) inappropriately. We will assume that this is to be read as an abbreviation for commission, rather than as an indication that it is an international commercial outfit.

Unfortunately, one of the Commission’s first tasks may be to prepare for its own dissolution, as the Scottish Government is proposing to merge it with Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People (www.sccyp.org.uk) – see www.journalonline.co.uk/News/ 1006135.aspx for more details.

The current website is at great pains to stress that it is only temporary, so it would be unfair to subject it to too much scrutiny at this stage and I undertake to return and review the updated site in due course. In the meantime, however, this one does a pretty good job. It is bright and well designed, gives a good introduction to what the Commission is all about and sets out its plans to consult on the first strategic plan.

So, if you have any ideas or thoughts on what the SHRC’s priorities ought to be over the coming years, then both the consultation document and a response form are available to download from the website.

Amnesty International Scotland

www.amnesty.org.uk/scotland

Amnesty International (AI) is, of course, one of the best known and most widespread human rights groups (over 1,000,000 supporters worldwide). These pages provide the detail of the Scottish branch. I must say, I was very impressed with what I found. What could quite easily have been a cursory note of contact details is instead a vibrant and richly detailed little sub-site.

Highlights include a Scottish Amnesty blog, Scottish Parliament information, details of six separate Scottish campaigns, Edinburgh Festival awards, photo galleries, teaching resources specifically designed for the new Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland,and more.

The standout feature of the site for me was the Universal Declaration of Human Richts – that’s right, an abbreviated of (or “cuttie”) version of the declaration in Scots. Available here to download as a PDF poster or to listen to (although the audio version only covers Airticles (sic) 1, 3, 5, 11, 18 and 25). Apparently, the First Minister has a framed copy on his office wall, just to remind him (among other things) that “Awbody hes the richt tae wyce legal remeid gin their richts isna respectit”.

Finally, if you have a website yourself, why not consider adding an AI widget from Irrepressible Info (http://irrepressible.info/)?

This will automatically add fragments of text from websites censored somewhere in the world – free speech in action.

Equality and Human Rights Commission in Scotland

The Equality and Human Rights Commission got a website review all to itself back in November 2007. It’s still a pretty good website, and there is now a reasonable amount of Scotland-specific content accruing. It also sets a really high benchmark when it comes to accessible websites (as one might expect). Having said that, it has been over a year since the EHRC launched, and the most useful section of its website remains the archive from the “legacy commissions” (Equal Opportunities Commission, Disability Rights Commission and Commission for Racial Equality).

Human Rights TV

www.humanrightstv.com

Not a specifically Scottish site, but a very interesting one nonetheless. Human Rights TV aims to “empower the voice seldom heard”. It does this by broadcasting on the web the stories of those whose human rights have been breached. Refreshingly, unlike many other video sites, it does not suffer intrusive advertising or other marketing.

By selecting the Camcorder Guerrillas channel, you can view two short films made in Scotland looking at the detention of asylum seekers and removals in Scotland.