UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review - fourth cycle recommendations: Scottish Government response

Responding to the Universal Periodic Review

1. The UPR is a review of the overall human rights records of all UN Member States.

2. The UPR process is coordinated by the UN Human Rights Council (“UNHRC”), which is composed of 47 elected UN Member States^[2]. Other UN Member States may also participate in the UPR process by making observations and presenting recommendations to the state whose record is under review.

3. In October 2022, the Scottish Government published a UPR Position Statement^[3] in advance of the formal UPR examination in Geneva. Standalone position statements of this kind are designed to assist the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, civil society stakeholders, other interested parties and the general public in engaging with treaty reporting processes. As such they support direct scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s human rights record. Whilst they do not form part of the formal documentation submitted to the UN they do serve as a document of public record. Critically, they establish a clear benchmark against which future Scottish Government performance can be assessed.

4. Our October 2022 position statement set out the progress that had been made in Scotland since 2017 in giving effect to a range of the UK’s international human rights obligations. It also provided an explanation of the overall UPR process and the Scottish Government’s contribution to the UK’s overall participation, including the role that the Scottish Government has played in supporting civil society engagement and the national reporting stage of the UK’s fourth and current UPR round.

5. Following those initial engagement and reporting stages, the UK’s overall human rights record was examined by the UNHRC during an in-person Interactive Dialogue session in Geneva on 10 November 2022^[4]. During that session, the UK was represented by a delegation led by the UK Government’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Courts and Legal Services, Mike Freer MP, and the UK’s Permanent Representative in Geneva. The UK delegation also included officials from the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments^[5].

6. As a result of the Interactive Dialogue session, the UK received 302 recommendations from 115 UN Member States^[6]. The UK presented its formal response to these recommendations to the UNHRC in March 2023^[7]. The Scottish Government provided a contribution to that response, which was coordinated domestically by the UK Government Ministry of Justice. In its response, the UK indicated “support” for 135 of recommendations, “partially supported” 55 of the recommendations and “noted” 112 recommendations.

7. Like much of the UK’s human rights reporting documentation that is submitted to the UN, the UK’s response to the UPR recommendations was constrained by an overall wordcount limit within which to set out the position of governments across all of the nations and territories of the UK (including the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories).

8. For that reason, the Scottish Government has prepared this statement in order to describe in greater detail the Scottish Government’s response to the UPR recommendations and to provide information about the action that the Scottish Government is taking forward that will give effect to these recommendations.

9. The recommendations have been grouped thematically, for ease of reference, and we have indicated how the recommendations in each group align with the Scottish Government’s National Outcomes^[8] and the UN Sustainable Development Goals^[9].

10. In line with the UK’s State Party response to the recommendations, the Scottish Government will take action to implement the recommendations that it has “supported” and “partially supported” as far as devolved competency will allow. This is an international political commitment that supports overall UK compliance with international obligations.

11. The UK will report again in 2025 on the progress that it has made in implementing these recommendations in the form of a Mid-Term Review. The Scottish Government will contribute to that review process in due course.

12. Further background information about the UPR process can be found on the UNHRC’s website^[10].