Human Rights Tracker Scotland: Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA)

Background

The Scottish Government contributes to reporting on human rights obligations to the United Nations (UN) and Council of Europe via the UK Government as State Party. Guidance from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights outlines the importance of tools that keep track of recommendations and that are periodically updated with implementation information to support monitoring and accountability. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) developed a tool in 2019 that collates international recommendations and tracks implementation in relation to reserved matters.

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2025 commits to ‘developing legislation to incorporate certain international human rights treaties into Scots law, working with stakeholders to refine proposals, and laying the groundwork for effective implementation’. In October 2024, the Leadership Panel for Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights (SNAP2) wrote to Ministers setting out prioritised actions which includes the development of a tool to measure, monitor and support the implementation of international treaty body recommendations. Following ministerial commitment in October 2024, the Scottish Government convened a Human Rights Tracker Design Group (the Design Group) consisting of stakeholders with expertise of monitoring and implementing human rights across Scotland. The Design Group has provided views on questions relating to ownership, form, functionality and scope.

The Tracker will be delivered in phases. The first phase of the Tracker will be launched in March 2026. This will be developed and initially administered by the Scottish Government and will provide a public digital interface that complies with relevant accessibility standards. It will initially feature basic functionality, providing a database of recommendations from UN core human rights treaties which are tagged to support searchability, thematic organisation, and user navigation.

The second phase of the Tracker will aim to develop an implementation methodology that supports clear and coherent reporting on action taken against relevant recommendations and the outcome. This will give consideration to publishing simplified, Easy Read and Child Friendly versions of the recommendations to further support user understanding. An indicative timeline for progressively uploading information onto the Tracker will be published, starting with the most recent recommendations from the UN Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Scottish Government will also aim to publish an Evaluation Plan that would set out how the Tracker would be assessed over the lifetime of the project.

The third phase will aim to consider options for expanding the scope, introducing advanced functionality and longer-term hosting arrangements of the Tracker. This phased approach will consider opportunities to reflect a whole of society approach to implementation, reporting, and follow-up. Phase 2 and 3 remain subject to the outcome of the 2026 Scottish Parliamentary elections.

More information about the Tracker can be found in the Project Initiation Document.