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Human rights advisory group calls for right to adequate housing to be enshrined in Scots law

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A human rights advisory group set up by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has recommended that the right to adequate housing should be included in an Act of the Scottish Parliament.

The First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership published its final report yesterday with seven recommendations aimed at ensuring Scotland is an international leader in building a rights-based society.

The recommendations include:

  1. An Act of the Scottish Parliament which provides human rights leadership.

  2. A public participatory process as a vital part of the preparation of the Act and its implementation.

  3. Capacity-building to enable effective implementation of the Act to improve people’s lives.

  4. A Scottish Government National Mechanism for Monitoring, Reporting and Implementation of Human Rights.

  5. Development of human rights indicators for Scotland’s National Performance Framework.

  6. Process of implementation of recommendations – to be led by a National Task Force.

  7. Integration of any further devolved powers into the framework as proposed in Recommendation 1 and, if independence, a written constitution including a bill of Rights for Scotland.

    8. Within the first recommendation is a section on economic, social and cultural rights which contains the right to an adequate standard of living, including the right to adequate housing, right to adequate food and the right to protection against poverty and social exclusion.

    Ms Sturgeon said a taskforce will be set up to take forward the recommendations.

    Welcoming the report, the First Minister said: “I set up the Advisory Group to offer advice on how we can further enhance human rights, as I wanted to ensure Brexit does not harm human rights in Scotland and that we remain in step with future advances in EU human rights. I also asked for recommendations to ensure Scotland is an international leader in respecting and enhancing human rights.

    “I share the ambition in this report that Scotland should introduce a human rights statutory framework and I support their recommendation that this should be done through public engagement, working across the public sector, civic society and parliament. As a first step I will establish a National Taskforce, early in 2019, to progress these plans.

    “It is fitting that the report is published as we celebrate Human Rights Day and the 70th anniversary of the signing the UN Declaration of Human Rights. I would like to thank Professor Alan Miller and all members of the group for their work and hope they continue to support efforts to deliver the human rights that will improve lives.”

    John Wilkes, Equality and Human Rights Commission head of Scotland, said: “This is a really welcome development. If this is taken forward it will place Scotland at the front of other UK countries in developing a progressive, rights based society.

    “We support the full incorporation of human rights treaties into Scots law. This proposed Act of Parliament will for the first time clearly set out the roles and responsibilities of the Scottish state in relation to a wide range of rights and social issues such as children’s, women’s and disabled people’s rights.

    “Importantly it will give citizens a clearer mechanism for resolving problems where individual rights conflict.”

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