Shelter Scotland submission to the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership

Key points:

1. We must incorporate the Right to Adequate Housing now to reflect the indivisibility of human rights, and to ensure that all of Scotland’s housing law and practice meets the minimum standards required.

2. Incorporating the Right to Adequate Housing into domestic law would be an important step in recognising housing issues as human rights issues.

3. Incorporation of the Right to Adequate Housing is necessary to address the accountability gap which exists between our existing domestic legal framework and human rights international standards.

4. The incorporation of the Right to Adequate Housing, with robust access to justice processes and budgeting to ensure the delivery of such processes, could significantly reduce access to justice issues across housing and homelessness.

5. The incorporation of the Right to Adequate Housing would reinforce that a human rights compliant approach requires necessary measures to be taken to address a shortfall in housing.