Naomi McAuliffe

In March 2021, the Scottish government committed to strengthening human rights protections for people living in Scotland in the wake of Brexit and threats to the Human Rights Act. The move was backed by civil society groups including Amnesty International and the HRCS but the reports’ authors have warned that stringent monitoring of public bodies compliance with legal duties will be vital to make sure new as well as existing human rights laws are upheld. HRCS and Amnesty say the evidence illustrates how human rights are still assigned a subsidiary role in council and health board service design and decision making at a time when a rights-based approach should be at the heart of Scotland’s Covid recovery.

Naomi McAuliffe, Amnesty International’s Scotland programme director, said: “Our report found a number of public bodies failed to consider basic human rights when making decisions that affected people’s lives during Covid-19, while we were dealing with a pandemic that restricted and impacted us like few things before it. As the whole country dealt with dramatic changes to lives and livelihoods, charities and frontline organisations began ringing loud alarm bells that some of the most vulnerable people in society were being overlooked and suffering much greater impacts.

“Our evidence suggests healthcare workers, people who need social care, care home residents, people living in poverty, older people, women, disabled people and people of colour were just some of the people most at risk from poorly considered public authority decisions. In the most serious cases, this lack of care even affected their right to life.”

Mhairi Snowden, director of Human Rights Consortium Scotland, said: “It is very disappointing that protecting human rights does not seem to have been a priority for many Scottish public authorities during Covid-19. Too many people are losing out on their human rights during the pandemic because those making the decisions failed to consider them.

“Recovery from the pandemic must include the Scottish Government looking again at how it gets the basics right. Building in human rights to all government decision making will best prepare Scotland for whatever the future brings. Covid-19 recovery plans need to focus on getting human rights in place for everyone, so things like adequate food, a decent home, and education are readily available to people in Scotland.”