The Scottish Human Rights Commission launches its Poverty Spotlight with a new paper – Poverty and Human Rights in Scotland: How can human rights be used to alleviate poverty?
Poverty is a human rights issue, and it needs human rights based solutions. Almost a million people in Scotland are living in poverty, undermining rights to food, housing, healthcare and justice. Recent Government efforts are welcome but have not been enough, poverty rates have not significantly fallen in a decade, and disabled people, minority ethnic groups and single parent households face additional barriers.
The Scottish Human Rights Commission are calling on the Scottish Government to:
- Make public service reform deliver for people in Scotland
- Make reducing poverty a key outcome of public service reform
- Close the gaps between poverty and access to justice
- Commit to a human rights based approach to budget decisions
- Require public bodies to commit to a human rights based approach to decision making and service design
- Set clear, achievable but ambitious targets that prioritise lifting people out of poverty
- Commit to a Human Rights Bill that provides a clear and enforceable route to alleviate poverty and provide pathways for accountability and access to justice.
Read the full paper below.
To find out more please visit www.scottishhumanrights.com.
