Scottish Government urged to show human rights leadership

The Scottish Government has been urged to show leadership on human rights by implementing a range of recent United Nations recommendations.

The administration has previously submitted a report on Scotland’s human rights performance, and is expected to respond to the recommendations later this year.

The call for action comes in the light of the latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UK’s record on human rights undertaken by the UN's Human Rights Council.

The UPR takes place every five years and this year the UK received 227 recommendations from the international community. However, it has said it will act on only 96. That is 42 per cent of the total and significantly less than the 73 per cent global average.
 
Judith Robertson, Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, said: “Scotland can be a world leader when it comes to advancing human rights, and the Scottish Government has the power to act over many of the UN’s latest recommendations. We hope they will now take this opportunity to address areas where we have yet to see progress since the UN’s last review in 2012.
 
“This includes taking action to incorporate international human rights treaties directly into Scottish law, and addressing the UN’s recommendations in critical areas that affect people’s lives such as poverty, domestic abuse, inequality and access to justice.”