Recognising the Humanity Standing Beside Us

Participation is critical to the work of the SHRC, not only because it is a pillar of a Human Rights-Based Approach, but because it is vital to respecting each person’s inherent humanity. Human rights are about how people experience the world.

Our role is to witness how rights are experienced in Scotland, and to reflect and highlight these experiences in our work to ensure a fairer Scotland where human rights are respected and understood, and where there is justice when things go wrong.

Of the many human rights issues and our approach to realising rights for all at the SHRC that have struck me since I joined six months ago, the commitment from members of the commission and the staff team to be visible and present across Scotland is one of the most powerful. This commitment is grounded in our personal passion for justice, but also in the wise reminder from a participant in our strategic planning processes which challenges us every day that

"Any meaningful commitment to human rights must start from the ground up, with recognising the humanity of the people standing beside you..."

The Scottish Human Rights Commission (the SHRC) is changing. As outlined in our 2024-28 Strategic Plan, the SHRC has a refreshed vision of a Scotland where everyone's rights are respected, and where there is justice when things go wrong. As part of this renewed approach to delivering its mandate, the SHRC has reviewed how best to support people to engage in, and inform, its work.

To make sure that we stand side by side with people as they experience human rights in Scotland to inform our monitoring, we have developed a new participation strategy for 2024-28 which outlines how we will co-operate with and empower  Scotland’s Human Rights Defenders.

A new approach

Underpinning our participation this strategy are 5 key principles which will underpin everything that we do:

1. Personal leadership: Supporting the empowerment of rights holders to function as human rights defenders.
2. Inclusive planning: Working alongside groups who have faced rights violations to help inform, design and, at times, co-deliver Commission projects.
3. Payment and responsibility: Paying for participation in accordance with Scottish best practices and ensure a clear understanding of participants' contributions and impacts.
4. Trauma-informed practice: Developing and utilising human rights defenders’ skills and support and protect human rights defenders and Commission staff.
5. Accessibility: Communicating clearly and tailoring our communication to our audience. This will involve accommodations for anyone wanting to participate in a Commission project. This may include, but is not limited to, Easy Read, BSL, and Braille.

Participation in Practice

In 2024, we undertook a range of activity to begin to develop this approach including,

• Piloting a new Payment for Participation model
• co-design of a Spotlight project on the Cultural Recognition of Scotland’s Gypsy Travellers,
• creating opportunities for Commission members to meet with groups to inform our work on the human rights impacts of poverty,
• co-creating a toolkit to support human rights defenders measure change on the progress being made in Scotland to moving away from institutionalisation of people with learning disabilities and / or autistic people to independent living.

And how will we know we are getting it right? Because the people we work with will tell us. Human rights defenders who worked on the Measuring Change Toolkit and took part in our research advisory group have offered their reflections on this process, stating,

“My experience of working with the Scottish Human Rights Commission on the Measuring Change Project was so positive. Many families including myself, have felt frustrated, helpless and lost on our journeys to advocate for human rights to be respected and upheld. To work alongside the Commission has been a privilege and empowering. They have really listened, heard and collaborated with myself and the others involved. They have worked tirelessly on this project, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of this important piece of work.” Measuring Change Human Rights Defender and Mother.

 “‘Collaboration’ was core to how we worked. We were a disparate group, went through classic stages of: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.  We built trust, recognised integrity, diversity, respected other perspectives, even though discomfort. We were bound together through the Vision of the UNCRPD Framework. Where we found practice that fell short, we agreed on the need for accountability from those whose roles are to deliver the vision.  We did that in a way free of blame, insisting nevertheless, on making the voices heard of those who suffer in consequence and continuing to seek changes that redress such practice.” Member of the Moving Away from Institutions Research Advisory Group, Advocate and Mother.

As the Commission continues to develop, we will uphold these principles through our actions to ensure human rights defenders and, most critically, victims of rights abuses can meaningfully engage in our work. Given the ever-changing policy landscape, this process will take time and is not without complexity and challenge. However, it is a process the SHRC is committed to and will underpin our work throughout the 2024-28 strategic plan timeframe.

The members of the Commission and staff team look forward to working with human rights defenders across Scotland to give voice to their views and experiences. The SHRC is Scotland's independent National Human Rights Institution, and it is those experiences which continue to tell us most about Scotland's record on human rights.

Angela O’Hagan

Commission Chair

You can read our full Participation Strategy on our website. It is available as a PDF, an accessible Word version, as an Easy Read and in British Sign Language.

If you have questions about the strategy, please contact us on hello@scottishhumanrights.com. British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact us directly by using Contact Scotland BSL.