Briefing: Barriers to Living with Dignity – Insights from Rights in Action

Over the past two years – as part of our Rights in Action project – The Poverty Alliance has delivered 19 Know Your Rights workshops to 230 people. There were representatives from 118 Poverty Alliance member organisations as well as people with lived experience of poverty. People from across Scotland have taken part including from rural, remote rural and island communities. These workshops aimed to introduce economic, social and cultural rights, explore the relationship between poverty and human rights in Scotland and support organisations to take a human rights-based approach to their anti-poverty work. In the five workshops that took place after the publication of the consultation on a Human Rights Bill for Scotland, the workshops also covered Scottish Government proposals and ways organisations could feed into the development of this legislation.

Our discussions with people working and volunteering in community organisations, civil society organisations and people with experience of poverty have emphasised that people experiencing poverty in Scotland experience human rights infringements regularly and face significant barriers to realising their everyday human rights. The issues identified not only affect individuals” ability to access essential human rights like healthcare, education, and social security but also undermine broader efforts to tackle poverty in Scotland.

This briefing outlines the key themes which emerged from these discussions. You can read it in the window below, or download it from here.