Coronavirus

“COVID-19 is a test for our societies, and we are all learning and adapting as we respond to the virus. Human dignity and rights need to be front and centre in that effort, not an afterthought”

Michele Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

These are unprecedented times, and all of us are dealing with very significant impacts on many of our basic human rights.

Human Rights Consortium Scotland Priorities

During this time, we have three strategic priorities:

To do what we can to enable the particular human rights concerns of our members to be raised with policy makers.
To enable our members to work together to defend human rights through providing information resources and facilitating collaboration between organisations.
To be a strong collective civil society voice on human rights protection in Scotland during the coronavirus crisis.

The Consortium has:

written to the Convenor of the Scottish Parliament Equalities and Human Rights Committee, Ruth Maguire MSP, to ask the Committee to begin an urgent inquiry into the equality and human rights impacts of the coronavirus crisis in Scotland. The Committee agreed to hold this inquiry, welcoming submissions that raise issues around the impact of the coronavirus on the protection of human rights.
coordinated a joint submission to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee’s inquiry, setting out 34 urgent questions that the Committee should ask
hosted member discussions – find out about upcoming discussions here
Submitted a paper to the Westminster Joint Committee on Human Rights on key issues, including the need to end reductions in local authority duties