Views being sought on human rights issues across Highlands and Islands
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Efforts are under way to find out how human rights are being affected across the Highlands and Islands on issues ranging from access to healthcare services to poor internet connectivity.
The Scottish Human Rights Commission is speaking to charities, housing associations, MSP offices and others at a series of meetings in the region, including two in Caithness.
The organisation is mandated by an Act of Parliament to monitor human rights in Scotland. As part of this role in 2023/24, it will focus on what is happening to people’s economic, social and cultural rights in the Highlands and Islands, with a report to be presented to the Scottish Parliament in the spring of 2024.
In March this year, the commission delivered a report to the United Nations in Geneva on how economic, social and cultural rights are being experienced in Scotland. Issues "of particular human rights concern in rural areas of Scotland" included:
- Lack of affordable and quality housing
- Limited access to sufficient and nutritious food
- Inaccessible healthcare services
- Fuel poverty
- Access to technology or poor internet connectivity
- Poverty-related attainment gap in education
- Transport connectivity to essential public services and supplies
The commission has decided to "take a deeper look at these potential human rights denials", and community visits are part of the process.
Executive director Jan Savage said: “The commission wants to understand the human rights issues affecting people in rural areas across the Highlands and Islands. We are focusing on economic, social and cultural rights, which includes how the government provides essential services to people for things like housing, health, education, culture and environmental rights.
“We have been approached by members of communities in the Highlands and Islands who are concerned about lack of affordable housing, high levels of food insecurity and difficulties in accessing medical services in rural areas.
“Through our treaty monitoring work to the United Nations, we have found that there is a lack of information and available data, specific to the Highlands and Islands, in comparison to the rest of Scotland.
“As part of our monitoring role on human rights, we will be investigating this situation further and establishing if public authorities are doing enough to provide essential services and support for people in rural areas to access their economic, social and cultural rights.”
Meetings are being held in Thurso today (Monday) and in Wick tomorrow (Tuesday), following on from sessions in Lerwick and Kirkwall last week. Other meeting venues in the Highlands and Islands include Dingwall, Inverness, Stornoway, Ullapool and Portree.
To find out how to attend, email research@scottishhumanrights.com
