Hansard

I am grateful for the opportunity to provide an update on the steps that this Government has taken to respond to the concluding observations that were made in February by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. I last appeared before the committee on this topic in May 2025 and corresponded with you in November, when I was able to provide you with further detail.In November, the Scottish Government published a high-level action plan that directly responds to each of the UN committee’s recommendations relating to devolved matters. Civil society and expert voices shaped our approach, which moves away from earlier narrative position statements and now focuses squarely on the actions that we are taking across a wide range of economic, social and cultural rights. The high-level action plan reaffirms our commitment to more deeply embedding treaty obligations in our policy and practice, and provides a practical framework to support collaboration, accountability, and scrutiny.10:00It is important to remember that, since the last state party review in 2016, we have faced major global and domestic challenges, including our European Union exit, the Covid-19 pandemic, the on-going impacts of the war in Ukraine, a rising cost of living and increasingly divisive rhetoric affecting community cohesion. Those pressures have underscored the need to place human rights—especially economic, social and cultural rights—at the centre of policy and practice. Scotland’s most recent programme for government reflects that, as it sets out our ambitious actions to advance our four priorities: eradicating child poverty, growing the economy, tackling the climate emergency and delivering high-quality, sustainable public services.In its evidence session in February 2025, the UN committee welcomed Scotland’s distinct approach to human rights, particularly our proposal for a human rights bill that incorporates ICESCR into domestic law within devolved competence, which will build on the Parliament’s leadership in the incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The UN committee also recognised our public health-led strategy on alcohol and drug harms, which the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has acknowledged as the first of its kind in the world.However, we know that we must do more. Therefore, our high-level action plan sets out what we are doing and will do across a wide range of devolved areas, including fair work, social security, child poverty, housing, education and cultural rights. That work sits within our wider ambition to foster a rights-respecting culture in Scotland and increasingly embed human rights across the Government through our national performance framework, which is supported by Scotland’s second national human rights action plan and the recently published equality and human rights mainstreaming strategy, toolkit and action plan.The publication of that high-level action plan marks a significant milestone in our wider programme to strengthen the implementation of international treaty body recommendations as part of a wider approach to human rights in Scotland. As I updated you in May, another important element of that work is the development of a new human rights tracker. The tracker will consolidate treaty body recommendations into a single, accessible online platform. It will support us all to identify and act on international recommendations in a strategic and co-ordinated way, which will help to enhance our rights implementation efforts in devolved areas.The first phase of the work will provide a centralised and transparent record of the recommendations that arise from the seven core UN treaties to which the UK is a signatory. In time, and subject to the outcome of the Scottish Parliament elections, I intend to continue to work with stakeholders to develop a methodology to clearly and consistently report on actions that are taken and on outcomes. The tool, which was a key SNAP2 recommendation, aims to support an increasingly systematic monitoring of progress, to help identify any gaps and areas for improvement and to strengthen accountability for action on devolved matters. That was a key SNAP2 recommendation and I look forward to seeing it launched in this parliamentary session.I am pleased to now confirm that the first phase of the tracker will go live on 12 March and I have extended an invitation to you via the committee clerks for the launch event and demonstration. I am grateful to them for their time as members of the tracker design group in recognition that such tools can support greater parliamentary scrutiny.In parallel with our domestic implementation agenda, I have also had the pleasure of showcasing our distinct approach to human rights in various engagements with international human rights specialists over the past couple of months. In November, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and I met Michael O’Flaherty, the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe. We used the opportunity to highlight our human rights approach to social security and the action that we are taking to eradicate child poverty, as well as reaffirming Scotland’s support for the European convention on human rights. The commissioner recognised the value of our work on the incorporation of international human rights treaties and we expect to see a memo following his visit later.Also in November, at the 30United Nations climate change conference of the parties—COP30—the Scottish Government announced a grant of £150,000 in support of the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on human rights and climate change. Through the grant, Scotland is not only contributing to global discourse but helping to enable inclusive rights-based responses to the climate crisis.Last month, at an event hosted by the organisation Art27 Scotland, the Parliament welcomed to Scotland Alexandra Xanthaki—forgive my pronunciation of her name—who is the UN special rapporteur on cultural rights. As the former Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, I was particularly pleased to have the opportunity to emphasise that cultural rights are not just a nice-to-have; they are inherent rights that we want to give greater protection to through our proposals for a human rights bill.I understand that today’s evidence session will focus specifically on the high-level action plan in response to the UN committee’s recommendations, and I welcome this opportunity. I remain committed to working together to strengthen good practice in implementation, reporting and follow-up to international human rights treaty bodies.