Independent analysis of Human Rights Bill consultation is published

Independent analysis of Human Rights Bill consultation is published

The Scottish Government has published an independent analysis of the Human Rights Bill consultation, which ran from June to October 2023. The independent analysis was carried out by Alma Economics.

The response to the consultation was massive. There were 397 responses, and almost half of these (187/ 47%) were from civil society organisations. The consultation was extremely long, with 52 questions over 44 pages. The independent analysis is also very long, so we at the Consortium have produced our own briefing which pulls out some of the key points. A few of these are listed below:

• Most respondents supported the whole idea of the Bill – incorporation of 4 international human rights treaties and the right to a healthy environment into Scots law.

• There was big support for an initial procedural duty on public
  authorities, and then moving to a duty to comply.
  
• An important area was the weakness in the Bill proposals around the group
  rights treaties (that is, CRPD on disabled people’s rights, CEDAW on
  women’s rights and CERD on rights related to race).
  
• Many people said that participation of people whose rights are most at
  risk is important. Some flagged that the Bill should include an explicit right
  to participation, and others said that participation needs to be embedded at
  key points of the Bill.

The big message from the consultation is clear – the Bill proposals in many aspects are not bad, but they need to be strengthened so that they can help to make all of our human rights a reality for all in Scotland.

Click here to read our briefing in full

Click here to read Alma Economics' analysis, including an Executive Summary

Click here to read all the responses to the Consultation

Click here to find out more about the Human Rights Bill