"Desperate reading": report finds human rights "failures" in Highlands and Islands

This year the independent body promoting and protecting human rights in Scotland, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, ran a spotlight project into the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Highlands and Islands.

 

It interviewed 146 people across 20 communities in the region, including Oban, Fort William, Lochgilphead, Colintraive, Dunoon, Stornoway, and Tarbert on Harris. Many expressed frustration about their human rights.

 

Critical issues included "an apparent failure to meet the most basic international obligations related to the right to health, the right to housing, and the right to food", the Commission said. 

 

"Urgent action is needed to eradicate rooflessness and hunger, and universal access to sexual and reproductive health services must also be prioritised and resourced to meet Scotland’s human rights obligations.

 

"In certain areas, sustained cuts to critical health services have been made with significant impacts on the local population. There is concern over the lack of locally available health services in certain areas including sexual and reproductive health services, meaning people have to travel great distances to access health services.

 

"A significant number of people are homeless, and some are living in conditions of rooflessness, without shelter or temporary accommodation.

 

"There is a shortage of affordable housing in rural areas including social housing. There are concerns about the ability of most people to heat their homes exacerbated by high energy costs. 

 

"In most areas, the lack of affordable housing was a central reason why young people were not able to return to their local areas after leaving to study or work elsewhere.

 

"Food affordability is a crisis issue for many people, relying on food banks due to high costs. Poverty forces individuals to prioritise fuel over food. This is a direct consequence of the need to travel for work and healthcare, as well as the high cost of heating homes.

 

"A lack of public transport in some areas further compounds the problem, making it difficult for people to travel to find cheaper alternatives."
 
"The report also found challenges in relation to the rights to work, social security, clothing, social care, education, and culture in the Highlands and Islands."

 

The commission made eight general recommendations at the end of the report. 

 

Its chairperson, Professor Angela O’Hagan, said: “The commission is very concerned about the poor state of economic, social and cultural rights in the Highlands and Islands.

 

“Too many people in Highland and Islands are hungry, homeless, without access to healthcare, and the basics for everyday life."

 

Dr Luis F Yanes, Project Lead and report author, added: “Economic, social and cultural rights are essential for people living a dignified life, free from fear and want.

 

“Many people in the Highlands and Islands feel unheard, disenfranchised, abandoned, and forgotten, with their human rights concerns discarded or minimised.

 

“This report enhances the voices of those living in the Highlands and Islands, demonstrating that urgent action is needed to realise these human rights for many people across the region.”

 

Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant said the report made for “desperate reading”. She supported calls for the universal access to affordable, acceptable, and quality sexual and reproductive health services, which, she said, "is especially required in areas such as Caithness where women have to often travel 120 miles to access maternity services and women’s healthcare".

 

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "We are taking forward nine actions to improve access to food, using a cash-first approach so that fewer people need to turn to food parcels.

 

"From April 2016 to March 2023, the Scottish Government has supported the delivery of more than 10,000 affordable homes across rural Scotland. Our commitment to deliver 110,000 affordable homes, of which at least 70 per cent will be for social rent and 10 per cent in our rural and island communities, is backed up by our Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan.

 

“We have established a National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care to support health and social care providers to establish long-term sustainable healthcare in rural and island areas. The aim of the centre is to help reduce remote, rural and island health and wellbeing inequalities."