Accessing Justice in Scotland: Your Views and Experience, 4th-6th April
Have you got views or experience around trying to get something done when trying to defend your human rights or access justice?
What would you do if your human rights were violated? Who would you go to and what resources would you draw upon? This is a question that many people in Scotland would struggle to answer.
Human Rights Consortium Scotland (HRCS) is launching a project which seeks to gather information, views, and expertise from individuals, communities and third sector organisations in Scotland of barriers in accessing justice on human rights. To kick start this project, you are invited to a workshop to bring your views on what these barriers are, and what can be done about them.
We will be exploring views and experiences around:
- When someone or a community experience an infringement of their human rights (social, economic, cultural, civil, political, environmental).
- When they use the law, legal tools, or a solicitor to seek justice.
- How they can access remedy and the type of remedies available.
We know that people face all sorts of barriers to justice and accountability. Some of these might relate to who you are or where you live or something else – please bring all of that experience and your views to the discussion. And you can say as little or as much as you want about your own experience. We really value your insights on what works, and what needs to be improved.
What happens after the workshop? Following the initial discussions, we will send all participants a draft report of findings and conclusions for comment if you want to. And there will be opportunities to get involved in future steps in the project if you want to as well. For example, we’re exploring creating some short films on key points. Experts will inform a co-produced campaign and report to be presented to senior decision makers.
Then the hard work will begin of doing everything we can to see justice on human rights become more genuinely accessible to everybody.
We want to emphasise that there are several ways to take part in the project focus groups, as well as the wider project. These include, but are not limited to:
- Taking part in the focus group to give views, but not necessarily having to commit to the wider project.
- Taking part in the focus group solely to give views without retelling any story or experience.
- Anonymously sending a story or your views to HRCS to be used as part of the wider project. You can do this via our survey here.
To take part, please come along to one of the focus groups by registering for your preferred time below:
- April 4, 4:00-5:30pm: Click here to register
- April 6, 2:00-3:30pm: Click here to register
- April 6, 6:00-7:30pm: Click here to register
We will do all that we can to make sure these focus groups are accessible to all. Please let us know of any particular accessibility requirements you may have before joining a focus group.
For anything else, please get in touch with Lucy on lucy@hrcscotland.org to discuss the project further.
We look forward to hearing from you.