Blog: Supporting human rights defenders in rural Scotland

Our Rights in Action project works to raise awareness of economic, social and cultural rights and to support communities to add human rights to their collective power.  

In June 2023, a group of six organisations delivering anti-poverty work in rural areas across Scotland came together through the Poverty Alliance’s Rights in Action project. Over the 12 months that followed, using the action learning methodology, these organisations identified issues related to their work and/or community. The organisations were then supported through a process to identify and take action to make change through adopting human-rights based approaches.   

Today we launch the report ‘Becoming Human Rights Defenders: Community organisations taking action on rural poverty in Scotland’ to share examples of practice change and learning from this phase of the project.  

Here are some of the main results that we found:

• Organisations embedded human rights into their work  

“it has really highlighted ...the importance of human rights and the recognition that they are available…The realization and awareness and empowerment and then the ability to take action, to defend and, and to stand up for your human rights” 

Participants gained confidence in advocating for their communities and using human rights language to influence decision-making.  

‘I feel much better able to advocate for people and prevent discrimination and the right to equal access’  

• Organisations introduced participatory structures, improved policies, and reframed communications to better align with their equality and inclusion goals.  

‘The work we did as a group helped us all to pull out the importance of participation’   

‘There is a much greater awareness now of the importance of equality and how we can elevate that.’    

‘Since that action learning set we’ve been putting a tooth comb through our policies’   

• The supportive peer network developed through the action learning  process strengthened individual and collective efforts, enhancing resilience and collaboration across rural communities. 

‘when you are rural like ourselves, it can be, it can feel quite isolating and so I’ve really appreciated having the support.’  

‘The process has really supported me being able to take action, of being able to think critically and creatively and outside the box’ 

This is the second time we have delivered an action learning set as part of the Rights in Action project and although actions that have been taken have differed, the impact on the participants has been similar. You can read our report on our first Rights in Action, Action Learning Set, Learning Together for Change: Community Organisations Advancing Human Rights in Scotland here.

Both projects have highlighted the learning and evaluation from the project also highlight the potential of structured, participatory methodologies to drive meaningful and sustainable change.