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xScottish Parliament debate Scotland’s National Action Plan for human rights
Date: 9th December 2014
Category:
Awareness-raising, Scotland-specific monitoring and reporting
As part of Scotland's National Action Plan (SNAP) monitoring and accountability framework, the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee led a debate in the Chamber on 4th December on the SNAP Year One Report.
The Scottish Human Rights Commission reported it to be a very positive discussion with cross-party support expressed for SNAP, strong recognition of progress made to date and constructive acknowledgement of the work still needed to achieve SNAP's vision.
A few recurring themes from Members' contributions included:
- Recognition of the wide spectrum of organisations and individuals involved in SNAP and praise for the collaborative approach to its development and delivery
- Recognition of the importance and centrality of human rights in people's lives and the opportunity that a human rights approach offers to realising democracy, equality and social justice
- The importance of human rights in all areas of policy and people's lives, not just as a narrow legal concept
- Positive feedback on the accessibility and reader-friendliness of the Year 1 report
During the debate, Alex Neil, the new Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners' Rights also announced that the Scottish Government will work with partners in SNAP to "support the development of an awareness-raising campaign that will be designed to help achieve a greater understanding amongst the population of why rights matter and empower people to claim their rights."
This awareness-raising campaign will form part of the Scottish Government's commitments under the 'Better Culture' outcome in SNAP.
A press release giving a bit more information was published and is available here.
A Year One report has been released setting out the progress made in the first year of SNAP; more information is available here.