Commission evidence to Parliament on report into human rights of disabled people
The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee today on our spotlight report on progress in ending institutional detention of people who have learning disabilities and autism, and called for the Parliament to continue its scrutiny of the issue.
Published in January 2025, our findings indicate that people with learning disabilities and autistic people are still being held in institutions in breach of their human rights under Article 19 of the UN Convention on Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), and no evidence of a human rights based approach to end this practice.
You can watch the full session on Scottish Parliament TV Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee | Scottish Parliament TV
Jan Savage, Executive Director gave evidence alongside Oonagh Brown, Participation and Policy Officer, and Cathy Asante, Legal Officer, from the SHRC.
Jan Savage, Executive Director of the SHRC said:
“We are grateful to the Committee for allocating the time to consider our report. What we have found in headline terms is the failure of the state to meet Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which enshrines the right to independent living for this population of disabled people
“The starkest finding is that there has been no change in outcomes over a lengthy period of time. People continue to spend many years in hospital and those numbers did not greatly reduce as intended.
“We report emerging concerns that we may find evidence of violations of rights that are protected by the European Convention of Human Rights by the Human Rights Act, that is Article 3 the right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment, Article 5 the right to liberty and Article 8 the right to family life.
“Hearing directly from people in this situation has been sobering and distressing and it continues to be.
“It is important that the focus is not on justifying these continued situations because it is difficult and it’s challenging to get things right, but we focus on ending the situation and we do so urgently.
"We welcome the Committee’s continued scrutiny of our findings, the questions arising from our findings, and on progress from here from duty bearers, regulators and the Scottish Government.”
Notes to editors:
- The Scottish Human Rights Commission is Scotland’s human rights watchdog. It is an independent public body, created by the Scottish Commission for Human Rights Act 2006, to protect and promote the human rights of all people in Scotland.
- You can read the full report here Moving from institutions to independent living | SHRC Spotlight Projects on our dedicated website page.