Consortium gives evidence to Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee about delays to the Human Rights Bill

Consortium gives evidence to Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee about delays to the Human Rights Bill

On 1st October, the Consortium had the opportunity to address the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee directly, and express our disappointment regarding delays to the Scottish Human Rights Bill.

The Bill has been left out of the recent Programme for Government 2024-25, published in September, despite the promise that it would be introduced by the end of this Parliamentary session in 2026.

Our Policy and Communications Lead, Lucy Miller, gave evidence to the Committee, urging the Scottish Government not to use devolution-related complications as an excuse to delay the Bill further. Her evidence was heard alongside human rights activists and academics who spoke in favour of the Bill, including Emma Hutton, Chief Executive Officer at JustRight Scotland, Neil Cowan, Scotland Programme Director at Amnesty International UK, and Professor Katie Boyle, Chair of Human Rights Law and Social Justice at the University of Strathclyde.

Lucy’s evidence expressed our disappointment at yet another delay to the Human Rights Bill, and our broader concern that:

“This delay sends the message that human rights are being deprioritised, and we actually saw that with less human rights language throughout the Programme for Government itself.”

Aware that the Scottish Government has cited concerns over the scope of devolution as a reason for delaying the Bill, Lucy argued that legal challenges to previous human rights legislation should not prevent the Government from proceeding with the Bill. Back in 2021, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Bill was challenged by the UK Government on the basis that it overstepped the scope of devolution. This challenge was upheld by the UK Supreme Court, and the Bill had to be redrafted, finally passing in December 2023. 

Lucy used this example to show that the Scottish Government has successfully overcome devolution-related challenges to incorporate human rights already, and that, rather than hide behind it or use it as an excuse, the Scottish Government must be transparent about the challenges it faces, and collaborate with the UK Government and civil society experts to overcome them:

“The Government needs to be far more transparent about its conversations with Westminster on limitations imposed by a devolution settlement... The Supreme Court judgement on the UNCRC Incorporation should not be treated as an excuse, but as a challenge to be overcome through collaborative dialogue.”

Watch a clip of Lucy’s evidence below:

Click here to watch the whole session on Scottish Parliament TV