Membership Spotlight highlights the work of our member organisations and outlines how other individuals and organisations can support them. Together is shining a light on Human Rights Consortium Scotland. Human Rights Consortium Scotland joined our membership in 2021.
Human Rights Consortium Scotland (HRCS) is Scotland’s Civil Society Network to promote and defend human rights. With over 170 organisational members (of which Together Scotland is one) and a further 350 individual supporters, we work collaboratively to be a strong civil society voice on human rights for all in Scotland.
It can be tough defending human rights in isolation, and the Consortium enables Human Rights Defenders to work together effectively. Many HRCS members focus on a particular issue or on the rights of a specific group, and the organisation does not simply duplicate that. Instead, HRCS works across human rights and identifies rights gaps where a collective civil society voice is valuable.
Scotland’s Human Rights Festival
In addition to its policy work, the Consortium regularly brings people together to share expertise, insight and support through its popular lunchtime webinar series and biennial national conference. Later this year, the inaugural Scotland’s Human Rights Festival will take place from 9-13 December, featuring more than 60 events across Scotland and online.
Together is delighted to be part of the festival, hosting their ‘Getting children’s rights right’ webinar on the 10th December at 10:00 – 11:30. Proactively implementing children’s rights from the outset. The webinar will focus on children’s rights tools, promoted by the United Nations Convention Rights of the Child (UNCRC), that help us get it right from the start.
The full festival programme is set to launch in early October. You can keep in touch with what’s on by following the festival Instagram account @scotlandhumanrightsfestival or visiting the HRCS website. You can sign up directly to Together Scotland’s webinar by signing up directly on their website.
Rights Here. Rights Now.
Earlier this month, HRCS and JustRight Scotland, with support from the Independent Human Rights Fund for Scotland and Corra Foundation, launched Rights Here. Rights Now. – a Scotland-wide storytelling and public engagement campaign. The campaign aims to strengthen public understanding of human rights and build support for stronger protections, including a Human Rights Bill for Scotland.
Across both video and written formats, the campaign features a number of stories that directly or indirectly highlight children’s rights. A selection of these stories is outlined below.
Parents for Future Scotland: Right to a Healthy Environment
Parents for Future Scotland is a grass-roots organisation born out of parents’ concerns around climate change and its impact on society and communities. The video features one of their ‘Bike Buses’, which enable children to cycle to school safely together. Right now, most children are unable to cycle to school safely due to excessive traffic and polluted roads. In Scotland alone, air pollution contributes to the death of seven people daily. Parents for Future Scotland highlight the importance of introducing a human rights bill which would ensure that the right to a clean and healthy environment is protected for future generations.
Jamie: Housing, Care Experience and the Right to Support
Jamie’s story highlights the challenges faced by care-experienced young people as they transition into adulthood. After leaving care, he experienced homelessness, unsafe living situations and difficulty accessing appropriate support. His experience demonstrates how children’s rights should be fully realised throughout childhood and that alongside his wider human rights the principles of this support should remain into adulthood. Support for care-experienced young people is essential to ensuring their rights to housing, safety, participation and development are realised in practice.
Derrick: Climate Change, Education and Children’s Futures
Derrick’s story focuses on the impact of climate change on rural communities, including schools and young people. As a teacher, he describes how wildfires, poor air quality and extreme weather affect children’s learning environments, health and wellbeing. His experience highlights the links between environmental rights and children’s rights, and the importance of ensuring that future generations can grow up in a safe, healthy and sustainable environment.
Naz: Girls’ Education and Gender Equality
Naz became an activist campaigning for the rights of girls and women in Pakistan, particularly around access to education and opportunities that were often denied to them. Her story demonstrates the importance of children’s rights, especially girls’ rights, in enabling young people to learn, participate in society and fulfil their potential. It also highlights how restrictions placed on girls in childhood can have lifelong consequences for equality, freedom and dignity.
These four stories show how children’s rights connect to a wide range of issues, from education and safety to housing, health, equality and the environment, reinforcing the importance of protecting and strengthening rights throughout childhood and beyond.
If you would like to support “Rights Here. Rights Now.”, you can do so by visiting the campaign website where you can access all of the stories, as well as a communications pack with full information on how you can help amplify the campaign.
Ends
Find out more information about signing up as a Together member here and join the community.
Consultancy and Training!
Together provides training and consultancy to organisations looking to strengthen how they support children’s human rights.
Webinars!
Sign up to our three free webinars series, designed to support those working with and for children to embed children’s rights in their practice.
Donate To Us Today!
Donate to Together and help us to promote children’s rights in Scotland and improve the lives of all babies, children and young people.