Working in partnership with Scotland’s human rights defenders

Today, we celebrate International Human Rights Defenders Day, marking 26 years since the United Nations adopted the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, recognising them as a group of people who work peacefully to protect and promote human rights.  And, across our communities and civil society networks, there are many human rights defenders to be grateful for in Scotland today.

As Chair of Scotland's National Human Rights Institution, I want to pay tribute to the human rights defenders across Scotland, including those that worked alongside the Commission this year.

I joined the Scottish Human Rights Commission as it shaped a new set of priorities, laid out within our Strategic Plan 2024-28. Chief among these was our commitment to put people and their lived experiences at the heart of our work.  Over the last year, we have begun to embed this approach through new Spotlight Projects, which have brought us closer to people, their communities and their lived experiences than ever before.

For example, through our Highlands and Islands Spotlight Project, we met with hundreds of people and heard directly from human rights defenders such as those in Caithness, advocating for better health services for women and girls.

We also worked closely with defenders through our Moving from Institutions to Independent Living Spotlight Project. A key output of this project is the development of two tools, co-designed by defenders for defenders: an online booklet that explains how to measure progress in deinstitutionalisation using human rights indicators and a short film sharing powerful personal testimony. These will be available on our website in January 2025.

Also due for publication in January 2025, our research on the right to independent living has also been informed by human rights defenders, including those with direct lived experience and cross-sector professional experience, who advised us on our work through a project board.  

Additionally, we've embarked on the Commission's first-ever co-designed and co-delivered Spotlight Project on the Cultural Recognition of Scotland’s Gypsy Travellers, working with victims of the ‘Tinker Experiment’ to gather evidence on the impact on individuals to date. This will inform a legal analysis and assessment of a required redress process.

To ensure we are recognising the value of human rights defenders experience and skills, we are piloting a payment for participation scheme across two of our projects, which we will seek to evaluate in 2025.

Towards the end of this year, Members of the Commission and staff team were privileged to meet with several human rights defenders working within communities, including members of both the Castlemilk Housing and Human Rights Lived Experience Group and Scotland Voices Network. Both these inputs will help inform our forthcoming spotlight project on the human rights impacts of poverty, and we would welcome the opportunity to meet with more defenders on this issue in early 2025. 

Early next year, we will publish our new Participation Strategy, underpinning our Strategic Plan and detailing how the Commission will continue to work in partnership with human rights defenders, amplify their voices and hold duty bearers accountable by shining a light their concerns. In the meantime, we thank all the human rights defenders across Scotland for tirelessly working to uphold human rights.

Read the Commission's Strategic Plan 2024-28 on our website at www.scottishhumanrights.com. You can keep up with all our latest work on our social media channels on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.