Poverty Alliance Annual Conference 2021

Rights in Recovery: Protecting Rights and Tackling Poverty After Covid

8 October 2021, 9.45am- 2pm

The impact of the pandemic has been different across our society. People living on low incomes, disabled people or people with long term health conditions, people from black and ethnic minority communities, and those who were in low paid employment have all been at greater risk. As we now look towards a period of recovery from the pandemic, this conference will look how we can both tackle poverty and ensure that the human rights of those who have been most affected can be protected and extended.

Plans for the recovery are already in development, with the Scottish Government and local authorities working on a variety of critical issues, from protecting jobs to tackling climate change and developing new approaches to social care. As these plans develop they will need to address the deep seated issues of inequality and poverty that the pandemic served to highlight so starkly.

There is an increasing recognition that underpinning our approach to recovery from the pandemic and tackling inequality must be a commitment to strengthen the protections for those who have been most impacted. In this context the development of the new Human Rights Bill, incorporating of several human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, presents an opportunity to take a new approach to addressing poverty and inequality. The development of the next Child Poverty Delivery Plan in 2022 will be an opportunity to begin to put a rights-based approach to addressing poverty into practice.    

This conference will:

  • highlight the the priorities for addressing poverty as we move through and recover from the pandemic 
  • emphasise the importance of protecting and strengthened human rights during the recovery from covid
  • provide opportunities to discuss how the next Child Poverty Delivery Plan can take a rights-based approach

The discussions at the conference will be fed into the Scottish Government’s process for developing the next Child Poverty Delivery Plan.

The conference will take place online. Please register for each of the sessions of the separately using the links below. Also, please note that the workshop sessions will run simultaneously, so please only register for one session. 


Session 1: Poverty, Human Rights and Covid Recovery

9.45am-10.30am

John Swinney MSP, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery, Scottish Government

Professor Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights

Chair: Uzma Kahn, University of Glasgow

To register please follow this link


Session 2: Beyond Covid: Priorities for Tackling Child Poverty

10.45am – 12noon

These workshops will be an opportunity to discuss key priorities for the next Child Poverty Delivery Plan. Each workshop will be led by a member of the Poverty Alliance team who will provide an overview on key relevant issues emerging form the Get Heard Scotland programme. Two speakers will then give an overview of key issues before opening up to participants to discuss priorities for the next CPDP.

Workshop 1: Child Poverty and Paid Work: Where now?

  • Ruth Boyle, Policy & Parliamentary Manager, Close the Gap
  • Jack Evans, Scotland Policy & Partnerships Manager (Work), Joseph Rowntree Foundation
  • Chair: Neil Cowan, Policy and Campaigns Manager, the Poverty Alliance

To register for workshop 1 please follow this link 

Workshop 2: Housing Priorities to tackle Child Poverty

  • Deborah Hay, Scotland Policy and Partnerships manager (Housing), Joseph Rowntree Foundation
  • Adam Milne, Senior Policy & Advocacy Officer, Shelter Scotland
  • Chair: Peter Kelly, Director, the Poverty Alliance

To register for workshop 2 please follow this link

Workshop 3: Race and Child Poverty: Breaking the Links

  • Talat Yaqoob, Writer and campaigner
  • Adebolaji Nimye, Community activist
  • Chair: Twimukye Mushaka, Senior Communities and Networks Officer

To register for workshop 3 please follow this link


Final Session 1pm-2pm

Roundtable on Child Poverty and Human Rights: Shaping the Next Delivery Plan

Bruce Adamson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland

Moira Tasker, CEO, Inclusion Scotland

Clare MacGillivray, Director, Making Rights Real

To register for the closing roundtable please follow this link 

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