Scottish Human Rights Commission - Emerging Human Rights Issues

Emerging Human Rights Issues

  • Business and human rights

In 2010 the Commission contributed to the work of the Working Group of the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions on Business and Human Rights by drafting a survey for all institutions on their interests, needs and capacities in the area. The Commission also provided written and oral evidence to the UK Parliament Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry on Business and Human Rights. In October 2010 the Commission hosted the International Conference of National Human Rights Institutions on the theme of Business and Human Rights. The conference agreed the Edinburgh Declaration, which sets an action plan for NHRIs on business and human rights.

  • Defending the Human Rights Act

In 2009, the Conservative party, then the main UK opposition party, announced that, if elected, it would repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 and replace it with a Bill of Rights. In March 2010 the Commission published two statements, including one co-signed with the NIHRC, calling for the preservation of the Act and emphasising that human rights would be best protected by building on the Act instead of replacing it.

  • Human rights and climate change

In November 2009 the Commission, in conjunction with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Scottish Government and the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, held a conference in Glasgow on 'Human Rights and Climate Change, Achieving climate justice in Scotland'.

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