GTC Scotland response to consultation on the Scottish Government's equality and human rights mainstreaming strategy.
GTC Scotland has responded to the Scottish Government's consultation on their equality and human rights mainstreaming strategy.
The equality and human rights mainstreaming strategy will guide the Government, the wider public sector and partners to improve embedding equality, inclusion and human rights into all that they do.
According to the consultation paper, the strategy is fundamental to achieving positive change and a fairer, more equal, society in Scotland for all of those who live here. It is key to tackling persistent inequality in society and sustaining equality of opportunity for all of those who live in Scotland. By establishing a clear framework for the Scottish Government and wider public sector’s approach to mainstreaming, the strategy will benefit all of those who live in Scotland by providing the foundation for improved policy, with better and fairer outcomes for all.
Our response
We generally agree with the vision and aims of the proposed strategy, including as they relate to ensuring an effective regulatory and policy environment, which is most relevant to our role; we consider that we already meet our Public Sector Equality Duty obligations by equality impact assessing our work and we have recently enhanced our processes by building in specific United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) considerations following the passage of the UNCRC Incorporation (Scotland) Act, however we would be in favour of any initiatives that aim to assist public bodies to understand and meet these requirements, and mainstream equality and human rights considerations in their work.
We note that the strategy, action plan and toolkit will be for the Scottish Government as well as public bodies to follow and consider that it is important (and positive) for the government to lead by example.
