A National Taskforce is putting together recommendations to the Scottish Government for a new human rights law. This law would build on existing human rights laws to strengthen how all our rights are protected.
This new law might include the right to the following economic, social and cultural rights:
The new law could also include specific rights for disabled people, women, black and minority ethnic people, older people and LGBTI people.
As a country, Scotland has signed up to international laws that set out our human rights. But only some of these rights can be enforced in Scotland’s courts at the moment. Those are the rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights, and protected by the Human Rights Act – like the right to vote, right to private and family life, and rights to freedom from torture or unfair detention, sometimes known as civil and political rights.
A new human rights law would put all our rights directly into Scotland’s laws.
The Human Rights Consortium Scotland and the Scottish Human Rights Commission are both members of the National Taskforce. Through All Our Rights in Law, we have heard from people and communities across Scotland about how a new human rights law should work. We have also learned about what people might need to use the new law to claim their rights.
These conversations are now complete, and we are gathering the responses into a report for the National Taskforce, which will inform their recommendations to the Scottish Government.
Using this information, we will gather views to help inform the National Taskforce’s final recommendations. We will also publish a report to help inform how detailed proposals for a new law are developed.