Access to justice for human rights breaches. Spotlight shines on the scales of justice

Why we are spotlighting this issue

In Scotland, our human rights are protected by international and domestic law. These laws should help to prevent breaches of our rights and provide us with routes to access justice when things go wrong.

Yet too often, people in Scotland are experiencing human rights denials and facing barriers that prevent them from accessing justice.

The journey to access justice for human rights breaches can be long, complicated, and expensive, requiring rights holders to have:

knowledge about where to turn for help or how to complain
money for and access to specialist legal advice
time and emotional resilience to pursue different complaints mechanisms

What the project will do

This project is the latest in a programme of work which touches on issues relating to access to justice.

In this spotlight, we have decided to look directly at barriers to accessing justice for different rights and groups. This project looks at access to justice: for economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, for prisoners and in community-based social care

"Far too many people in Scotland still experience denials of their basic human rights and dignity every day – and lack effective access to the mechanisms and means to challenge them." Quote from Member of the Commission, Claire Methven O'Brien

Access to justice for economic, social, cultural and environmental rights

In 2023, we commissioned Access to Justice for Everyone, a discussion paper from Professor Katie Boyle, Professor of Human Rights & Social Justice at the University of Strathclyde. The paper focuses on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights and highlights different barriers around access to justice for violating these rights. It also suggests a range of solutions to move towards an access to justice system that is fit for purpose.

Find out more:

Have five minutes? Read this article which explains why new human rights laws must have teeth if they’re going to work for everyone in Scotland.

Have longer? Read the discussion paper Access to Justice for Everyone: How might a new Human Rights legal framework improve access to justice in Scotland today? You can also read a summary of this report and an accessible Word version.

Social care. A group encircled by a love heart.

Access to justice for prisoners

This part of the project looks at the journey to justice for prisoners who may have experienced human rights breaches, mapping a route through the prisoner complaints process and the barriers that they face when seeking justice.

Access to justice in community-based social care

This part of the project will focus on barriers to challenging Self Directed Support decisions, specifically when entitlements have been reduced without a reduction in need.

We will produce reports for each element and they will be published in due course.

Additionally, through consultation with rights holders, civil society and key stakeholders during the development of our Strategic Plan 2024-28 , we identified access to justice as an area which requires our continued focus. This theme, as well as our top priorities, will inform future Spotlight Projects over the next four years.

Strategic Plan 2024-28