Commission gives evidence on Annual Report 2023-24 at the Scottish Parliament
The Chair of the Commission Professor Angela O'Hagan and Executive Director Jan Savage attended the Scottish Parliament on 14 January 2025. They gave evidence to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on the Commission’s Annual Report 2023-24.
The Annual Report 2023-24 demonstrates the work the Commission has pursued in the past year to deliver its statutory duty to promote human rights, through a renewed focus on monitoring and reporting to deliver improved accountability for human rights in Scotland.
It highlights our activities to engage with people’s lived experiences of human rights, including a series of spotlight projects focused on monitoring and reporting. The Commission’s work has included:
- Meeting with more than 140 people in the Highlands and Islands, to explore human rights concerns in areas such as healthcare, housing and transport.
- Collaborating with human rights defenders to call for faster progress toward independent living for people with learning disabilities held in institutions.
- Delivering a major report on places of detention in Scotland, assessing 29 human rights recommendations and finding the majority of them have not been met.
- New research into Attitudes to Human Rights in Scotland.
- Calling for improved access to justice for human rights, in a major report and ongoing research.
- Public consultation on our Strategic Plan 2024-28.
- Research, fieldwork, engagement and participation work on our new Spotlight projects, designed to shine a light on key human rights issues in Scotland.
- Presenting written and oral evidence to the Scottish Parliament on themes such as human rights within social care and human rights budgeting.
- As Scotland’s National Human Rights Institution, we also delivered major reports measuring Scotland’s progress on human rights to international treaty bodies such as the United Nations and the Council of Europe.
Speaking at the Scottish Parliament, the Chair of the Commission Professor Angela O'Hagan said:
“Our Annual Report 2023-24 gives a glimpse of the huge range of work conducted by the Commission across pre-legislative scrutiny, and international and domestic treaty monitoring. It demonstrates how we are building our own evidence base of rights denials for rights holders and the persistent accountability gaps for duty bearers. We do this work guided by a core principle, presented in our Strategic Plan, of recognising the human standing beside you.
“We are a small and dedicated team of Commissioners and staff, and it is our collective privilege to serve the people of Scotland in securing their rights and contributing to advancing a human rights culture in Scotland.”
Executive Director Jan Savage said:
“We continue to make sure we strengthen the operations of the Commission as a well-functioning public body and an effective National Human Rights Institution. This includes delivering the recommendations of our Independent Governance Review, publishing a new Code of Governance and the induction of our new Chair, Professor Angela O’Hagan, who joined the Commission in August 2024.
“We will focus in the period ahead on delivery of our new Strategic Plan and supporting accountability for human rights in Scotland, informed by in-depth, detailed engagement with individual rights holders, communities, with civil society and with the Scottish Parliament.”
A full transcript of the Commission's evidence in front of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee can be viewed on the Scottish Parliament TV website.