To mark today, Thursday 10 December 2020, as the annual International Human Rights’ Day, the Jimmy Reid Foundation is pleased to publish the paper, ‘Update on Human Rights Protection in Scotland – recommendations to review and revitalise collective action’, by Carole Ewart.
In the paper, the author recommends, ‘talking less and doing more to make human rights and their enforcement a practical reality across Scotland’.
This course of action must begin with affirming that human rights are universal, interdependent and must be equally enjoyed. Then it must be followed by campaigning for the inclusion of economic, social and cultural rights in Scots law through direct incorporation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and by influencing the detail of the new law for Scotland which is being currently developed by The National Taskforce for Human Rights.
With that, taking forward UN identified action is the next step in order to strengthen human rights, where in Scotland this must include promoting knowledge, delivering training, seeking effective enforcement of duties by regulators, and improving access to remedy when an individual need to complain about an abuse of rights in the workplace, in their communities and when accessing publicly funded services.
The paper ends by inviting unions and organisations to work with the Jimmy Reid Foundation to sustain our research and influencing work to make our recommendations happen.