Social Renewal Advisory Board Report Calls for Incorporation of Human Rights Treaties
Image credit: dun_deagh, Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dun_deagh/10253345204/in/album-72157627413379299/
The Social Renewal Advisory Board is an independent board, set up by Scottish Government ministers to make recommendations for Scotland’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated socio-economic injustice in Scotland, and the Board’s report makes 20 calls to action to remedy this.
We welcome the findings of the Board’s report, and fully support its vision. The report puts human rights at the heart of Scotland’s social recovery, and is ambitious in its goals. In particular, we endorse Call to Action 11, which calls for the incorporation of a range of international human rights treaties into Scots Law.
Incorporation refers to the process of making international treaties- such as the Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights or the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities- justiciable in domestic law. It makes public bodies accountable to international human rights standards and allows those whose rights have been violated to take their case to domestic courts. We are fully supportive of measures the Scottish Government has already taken to incorporate international human rights treaties, and support this call from the Social Renewal Advisory Board to incorporate more.
The report states that incorporation of UN Conventions will “offer us the potential to transform practice in the design, delivery, and resourcing of public services, the formulation of public policy and finance decisions.” It will make a significant difference in the lives of ordinary people, especially those disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.