THE 70 TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

THE 70 TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

There is an urgent need of human rights leadership in today’s world. How is Scotland taking its share of responsibility and how is the University of Strathclyde contributing?

There is currently real pressure on the international rules-based order. Too many are putting their own interests before that of cooperating to address such global challenges as climate change, conflicts, forced migration, inequality and poverty. Brexit is part of this and it also poses a risk to the existing framework of human rights and social protections in the UK.

This framework in Scotland has now been in existence for 20 years since the creation of the Scottish Parliament. It has rested on the two pillars of obligations to comply with EU law and with the European Convention on Human Rights as incorporated through the Human Rights Act. Brexit would remove the former pillar and imperil the other.

It is in these circumstances that the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, established in 2017 an Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership. Its mandate was to outline to her the concrete steps to be taken to demonstrate human rights leadership in and by Scotland in these times. A Report was presented to the First Minister on International Human Rights Day last year.

Among its seven recommendations was that of introducing an Act of the Scottish Parliament which would, for the first time, put in a single place the human rights belonging to everyone in Scotland. Such rights would include not only those civil and political rights provided by the Human Rights Act, but also economic, social, cultural and environmental rights drawn from UN human rights treaties. As importantly, the Report recommended how such rights needed to be effectively implemented, so as to improve the lives of people. The establishment of a National Task Force was also recommended to

help Scotland take forward the proposed leadership steps.

The First Minister, and indeed the Scottish Parliament, welcomed the Report and has now established the National Task Force for Human Rights Leadership. It is to take forward through a participative process the preparation of a Bill to be presented to the Scottish Parliament in its next session in 2021.

The University of Strathclyde is playing an influential role in this process. I have been appointed by the First Minister to be Independent Co-Chair of the National Task Force along with Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Cabinet Secretary responsible for human rights. This follows on from my chairing of the First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership.

the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance, will also contribute to the university playing a leadership role in contributing to social progress within Scotland.

This close collaboration between the human rights and environmental centres will also help the university in addressing the global challenge of climate change. In particular, it will respond to the increasingly recognised need at the UN level of a human rights-based approach being taken, so as to enable the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. I hope this can lead to an even broader and multi-disciplinary cooperation across the university in promotion of the Sustainable Development Goals. This will hopefully be an opportunity of making a contribution to Scotland becoming a better country in a better world.

A significant part of my role as Professor of Practice at Strathclyde will therefore be in knowledge exchange and policy influence. I will work with the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law and its Director, Dr Elaine Webster, and other colleagues to help build the Centre into a national and international centre of excellence. Another member of the National Task Force is my colleague, Elisa Morgera, Professor of Global Environmental Law, whose role within it, along with others at

Alan Miller was appointed in August 2019 as Professor of Practice in Human Rights. He is a Special Envoy of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions and a roster member of the UNDP Crisis Response Bureau. Previously, he held the elected positions of the founding Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission and founding Chair of the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions . He is also a past President of the Glasgow Bar Association.