Human Rights Consortium Scotland conference 2026
Pictured above: Session at the Human Rights Consortium Scotland’s Human Rights Conference
Earlier this week, our Policy Lead, Stephen, was at Human Rights Consortium Scotland’s 2nd Annual Human Rights Conference. He shares his thoughts about the event.
‘Our Rights, Your Move’ was the theme of the day and a call to action, reflecting both the precarious state of human rights in a volatile world and the need for Scotland’s political class to stand up for our marginalised communities – in this Holyrood election year and beyond.
This includes standing with and for disabled and neurodivergent people, who, as we know all too well, experience profound inequalities. Poorer outcomes for neurodivergent people in respect of access to education, care, and employment are, in part, the product of longer-term political inaction.
The rights of neurodivergent people are not optional extras; they are essentials.
The Scottish Government must deliver in the next parliamentary Session the bold human rights agenda it promised for this Session. This includes the Scottish Human Rights Bill and the Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill.
During the conference, Professors Angela O’Hagan (Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission) and Allan Miller (University of Strathclyde) spoke powerfully on the need for action from government, ongoing work (domestically and internationally) to embed equality, and the threat to human rights posed by geo-political instability and bad-faith actors.
It was clear in conversations with co-delegates on Tuesday that, despite the significant challenges we face, there is palpable optimism across the third sector that real change will come. This is an optimism from which we can build significant action, motivated to confront those challenges head-on, and to realise from MSPs in this term of Parliament what has been promised before.
