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Incorporating Human Rights in Scotland

The First Minister of Scotland has committed to incorporating international children’s rights into domestic law, and the Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership has further recommended that Scotland should incorporate all human rights treaties. Recent research shows that incorporation is complex and that civil society groups are often confused by how incorporation can be done and what it can achieve in practice.

Parliament and Calton Hill

Working with key partners (Human Rights Consortium Scotland, Amnesty Scotland and Together), this project brings academic research together with civil society expertise to develop a framework for best practice on incorporation, ensuring that civil society organisations have the information and training they need in order to influence key decision-makers.

Led by Dr Kasey McCall-Smith, the overall aim of this project is to develop a best practice framework, using international examples of incorporation across different human rights sectors, to be used by civil society human rights groups in Scotland, which will include:

  • Identifying gaps in relation to civil society’s understanding of the legal process of incorporation of treaties into domestic law;
  • Co-developing training materials with project partners to aid civil society organisations’ advocacy on incorporation, including to the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament;
  • Delivering training to civil society organisations across different sectors which will aid them in strategic planning and advocacy for human rights treaty incorporation; and
  • Disseminating best practice treaty incorporation to wider groups of policymakers in collaboration with project partners.

This project is funded by an ESRC Impact Acceleration Grant.

Watch Dr Kasey McCall-Smith discuss the project:

Scoping Workshop

In November 2019, the Incorporating Human Rights in Scotland project held a scoping workshop, which was designed to identify gaps in relation to civil society's understanding of the legal process of incorporation of treaties into domestic law.

Videos

Participant's perspectives

Incorporating Human Rights in Scotland Workshop

The Incorporating Human Rights in Scotland Workshop was held at the University of Edinburgh on 27 February 2020 for civil society human rights groups in Scotland.

Training videos

Dr Kasey McCall-Smith: What is incorporation and why does it matter?

Sofie Quist & Veronica Luhtanen: Incorporation in context: Lessons from other countries

Infographics

International human rights law - a summary (Download PDF)

International human rights - a summary - EasyRead version (Download PDF)

What is incorporation? (Download PDF)

What is incorporation? - EasyRead version (Download PDF)

Different models of incorporation (Download PDF)

Timeline of human rights in Scotland and the United Kingdom (Download PDF)

Timeline of human rights in Scotland and the United Kingdom - EasyRead version (Download PDF)

Reports and publications

Incorporation of the CERD and CRPD and Equivalent Rights Provision for LGBTI Communities and Older Persons for the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership by Prof. Nicole Busby and Dr Kasey McCall-Smith (Scottish Government website)

Human Rights Consortium Scotland (HRCS) birefing papers - by Dr Kasey McCall-Smith (all links to HRCS website)

Incorporating the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People into Scots Law - Dr Kasey McCall-Smith commissioned by the ALLIANCE and Inclusion Scotland (Health and Social Care Alliance Website)

Minimum Standards for Delivering Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - Dr Kasey McCall-Smith, briefing paper for the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership (Scottish Government website)

Incorporation case study examples

Iceland as an example (Download PDF)

Iceland brief (Download PDF)

Norway as an example (Download PDF)

Norway brief (Download PDF)

South Africa as an example (Download PDF)

South Africa Brief (Download PDF)

Switzerland as an example (Download PDF)

Switzerland Brief (Download PDF)

Additional project resources

Glossary of Key Terms (Download PDF)

Best Practice Framework from International Examples (Download PDF)