Scotland's Human Rights Bill

The Scottish Government plans to introduce a new Human Rights Bill that will incorporate four United Nations human rights treaties into Scots Law. The four treaties are:

the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

Subject to devolved powers, the proposals plan to strengthen protection for the human rights of women and girls, disabled people and minority ethnic communities. The Scottish Government also intends that the Bill will set out the right to a healthy environment and strengthen rights protection for LGBTI and older people.

The development of the new Human Rights Bill builds upon findings of the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership and ongoing work to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law.

Consultation on the new Human Rights Bill

In June 2023, the Scottish Government launched a public consultation on its plans for the new Human Rights Bill. Find out more and respond to the consultation here.

Children's consultation resources

Together supported the Rights Detectives to shape child-friendly consultation resources in partnership with Scottish Government. Two different sets of resources are available - one for children who are new to the topic and another for children who already have some base knowledge of human rights and incorporation. Each pack comes with an accompanying facilitator guide for adults who are supporting children to share their views.

What has happened so far?

STEP 1: The National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership

In 2019, the Scottish Government formed a National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership to support the development of this new Human Rights Bill. The National Taskforce spoke to children, young people and adults to see what they thought about creating this law.
STEP 2: Gathering children and young people’s views
To make sure this new law is shaped by people's views and experiences the National Taskforce wanted to hear what children and young people thought. To support this, Together developed three short briefings to help children and young people understand what human rights incorporation could mean for them. Each briefing focused on a specific topic:
STEP 3: Making recommendations
Children and young people shared their ideas for the new law and how they thought it could affect them and their communities. Together shared this with the National Taskforce in a report here.

The National Taskforce then wrote a report to the Scottish Government, drawing from what they heard from children and young people alongside other groups. The report made 30 recommendations to the Scottish Government.
- Read the report in full here.
- Read the summary of key points here.
- Read the Easy Read version of the report here.
STEP 4: Children and young people supporting Scottish Government
The National Taskforce's recommendations were accepted by Scottish Government. Together is working with Rights Detectives to help Scottish Government move forward with developing this new law!
- Read more about our work with Rights Detectives here!

Latest updates

The new Human Rights Bill for Scotland was initially due to be introduced in June 2024. Its development has been subject to ongoing delays.

In September 2024, Scottish Government published its new Programme for Government 2024-25 setting out its plans for the year ahead. The new Human Rights Bill was not included, much to the disappointment of Together's members and wider civil society organisations.

Read the press release from Human Rights Consortium Scotland here.