Human Rights Bill for Scotland: discussion paper - easy read

Bringing the treaties into Scots law, and core duties

Core duties are the main things that duty-bearers must do.

Duty-bearers are people and organisations who have a responsibility to respect human rights and make sure they are protected for everyone.

We want to give the strongest protection for human rights we can.

We want the laws to be as clear and understandable as possible for everyone.

We want to write the new law in a way that keeps the rights as close as possible to the treaty rights.

We have to make sure the law fits with the powers that the Scottish Government has – including its limited powers on equal opportunities.

Equal opportunities laws make sure everyone is treated fairly and have the same choices and chances.

We are limited in our powers in what we can do in the Bill with treaty rights that are about equal opportunities.

These are like rights in CRPD, CEDAW and ICERD.

For the ICESCR rights we are thinking of making laws that say organisations must:

• think about the rights when they plan and make decisions
• think about how to deliver human rights equally to everyone
• have minimum standards - a basic level of human rights and services that must always be given
• make progress over time when delivering these rights

For CRPD, CEDAW and ICERD we are thinking of making laws that say:

• organisations must think about these rights when they plan and make decisions

• organisations must think about these rights when delivering ICESCR rights to:
  • disabled people
  • women
  • people of all races

In the 2023 consultation many people said they want to see stronger duties on the rights in CRPD.

This is something we want to keep looking at.

Some people in the consultation felt there were groups that should be included and named, like people with experience of being in care.

This is something we are thinking about.

We want to make laws that say organisations must think about the right to a healthy environment when they plan and make some decisions.

This is an area we want to keep working on.