It aims to strengthen the country's approach to human rights
Scotland’s Human Rights Commission has published its priorities for the next four years.
The plan outlines how it will use its powers to build its role and profile as Scotland’s human rights watchdog, to investigate human rights violations, to hold those responsible accountable for making sure those rights are realised, and support public bodies to do better.
Its three priorities are: to use and extend powers to make sure there are stronger human rights protections for everyone in Scotland. This means it can hold those responsible to account when things go wrong.
It waill also engage more people in communities across Scotland in its work, so that everything is informed by people’s direct experience of human rights issues.
And it will monitor and report on how human rights are being experienced in Scotland and play a part in creating a stronger human rights culture.
Jim Farish, Shelley Gray, Claire Methven O’Brien, members of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, jointly said: “We have detailed our ambition to lead this organisation out into communities; to talk, to listen and find out how well human rights are being realised in Scotland.
“This will inform our decisions on how we will use our powers and resources over the next four years.
“The commission will focus its efforts on being a strong watchdog for everyone’s human rights in Scotland. This means holding power to account where things go wrong, and supporting public bodies to do better with our help.
“We have identified four areas where we believe stronger focus is needed – on poverty, in places of detention, in access to justice, and on the rights of groups of people most at risk.
“The development of a new Human Rights Bill presents a key moment in shaping how public services are designed and delivered to uphold people’s human rights.
“We will prioritise work to scrutinise and support that process to best serve the people of Scotland, and to ensure that as a commission, we have the powers and duties to do the best job we can in upholding human rights.”
