GDA Response to Scottish Government’s ‘A Human Rights Bill for Scotland’ Consultation

We strongly support the incorporation of all of our international human
rights treaties, in particular the UNCRPD, into Scots Law. Building a
framework of strong rights, duties and accountability, with adequate and
meaningful access to justice, is a vital step to stop the decimation of
disabled people’s human rights that has been called a “human
catastrophe” by the UN itself.

We welcome the long-awaited consultation on the Bill as a step towards
human rights law in Scotland and following through on the commitment
to enshrine UNCRPD into Scots Law, made in the last parliamentary
session.

As outlined in our response, while we welcome many of the proposals within the
bill, we have concerns about the limits within the current proposals to
protect disabled people’s human rights. In particular, the model of
incorporation needs to place a stronger duty to comply on as many
rights of possible within the UNCRPD.