Dr Kasey McCall-Smith outlines benefits of incorporating CRPD into Scots law during ALLIANCE event

As part of the Digital Gathering 2021 hosted by the ALLIANCE (the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland), on Friday, 26 February, Dr Kasey McCall-Smith presented on the key benefits of incorporating the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) into Scots law. She recently delivered a report to the ALLIANCE and Inclusion Scotland detailing the potential for incorporation of the CRPD in Scotland. Both organisations are now leading the campaign to gather support and signatures calling for the Scottish Government to fully and directly incorporate the CRPD into Scots law. Dr McCall-Smith's contribution and interactions with the audience highlighted the gaps in the existing maze of laws designed to support disabled people and the coherence that could be provided by the CRPD framework. In particular, she discussed the demands that the CRPD places on states to drive cultural change in relation to the disabilities suffered by people as a result of structural inequalities. 

The presentation at the ALLIANCE event is a continuation of the work Dr McCall-Smith has been engaged with for over two years in relation to developing research and training for civil society organisations and the public regarding human rights and the incorporation of human rights treaties. In conjunction with Amnesty, the Human Rights Consortium Scotland and Together, the project 'Incorporating Human Rights in Scotland', which ended last autumn, focused on the co-production of a range of training materials and the delivery of training to civil society organisation representatives from across Scotland. The incorporation training materials produced are freely available on the project website. 

It also builds on the research she has carried out as a member of the Academic Advisory Panel (AAP) to the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership. The AAP was tasked with briefing the Taskforce and members of the Scottish Government on various issues relating to the core features of human rights and different approaches to implementation. As a member of the AAP, Dr Kasey McCall-Smith delivered a briefing paper on the core elements of economic, social and cultural rights with a specific focus on some of the more complex rights being contemplated by the Taskforce. The AAP, including Professor Nicole Busby (Univ of Glasgow), Dr Elaine Webster (Strathclyde Univ), Professor Tobias Lock (Maynooth Univ) and Dr Katie Boyle (Univ of Stirling), delivered their initial briefing papers in June 2020 but they have only become publicly available this month. You can read the briefing papers, which address issues including how an equality clause might work, incorporation of CEDAW, human dignity, human rights and Brexit, identification of duty-bearers and access to justice, on the Taskforce website. A further paper by Professor Busby and Dr McCall-Smith on the benefits of incorporating the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination and the CRPD will be available shortly.