EVERYONE has the human right to food and housing. Yet, with hundreds of thousands of food parcels handed out in Scotland each year, and thousands of people left in damp, dingy and unsuitable temporary homes, these rights are often not recognised.

Now a new report for the Scottish Human Rights Commission – and to be considered by the First Minister – has put forward a raft of proposals to integrate human rights into Scots law.

READ MORE: Tears at the food bank – an everyday struggle for Scots families

The report by Dr Katie Boyle, professor in international law at Stirling University, is published as Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty, arrives in the UK to explore links between poverty and human rights.

He will visit Glasgow and Edinburgh as part of the 12-day visit – which starts on November 5 – during which he is expected to find the UK in severe breach of human rights law.

Boyle’s report, Models of Incorporation and Justiciability for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, highlights the “accountability gap” between human rights that the UK is signed up to honour – including the right to adequate food, housing and the right to choose work freely – and the lack of legal redress if these are not met by the state.

The report will this week be submitted to the First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership, set up by Nicola Sturgeon. It aims to “lead by example in the field of human rights” and is due to report next month.

Last month, the Scottish Parliament Social Security Committee heard from teachers and food bank workers who claimed child poverty in Glasgow was at “epidemic” levels.

A food bank worker told MSPs a family had been referred by a school after a boy aged eight stole sachets of tomato sauce from the school canteen to make soup as the family had nothing else to eat.

Demand at Trussell Trust food banks has increased by up to 80% since the introduction of Universal Credit, the committee heard.

Meanwhile, homeless charity Crisis has raised concerns about thousands of Scots left in unsuitable accommodation, including families placed in dilapidated B&Bs without adequate cooking or washing facilities where they are forced to share beds for weeks on end.

Benefit sanctions continue to be applied by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to those who reject job offers. In December 2016, it emerged job seekers who had been forced to accept employment at Amazon’s Fife warehouse were sleeping outside in tents to save on travel costs because the roles effectively did not pay the living wage.

Boyle’s report details how countries around the world, from Germany and Sweden to South Africa and Argentina, have put in place laws that allow the state to be held accountable for human rights breaches. They include 12 countries in Europe, with these rights in their constitutions.

While acknowledging the challenges posed by reserved issues, Boyle said Scotland could adopt similar approaches lead the way in the UK in terms of protecting human rights.

She added: “We do have human rights laws, but they are restricted. These mostly relate to civil and political rights, such as the right to a fair trial or the right to freedom of expression.

“Other rights such as the right to healthcare, the right to education, employment rights or the right to adequate housing are partially protected through domestic legislation … but do not necessarily meet the standards required by our international human rights obligations.

“The UK has promised to comply with these rights but unless we incorporate them into our domestic law there is no way of legally holding the government to account. This is a major accountability gap.”

SHE claimed putting human rights law into UK domestic law could save lives. She said: “For example, if you think about the Grenfell Tower disaster, in the aftermath we spoke about it as a health and safety issue, we spoke about it as a violation of the right to life – which it was.

“Yet it should never have happened. Had the right to adequate housing been enshrined into UK domestic law the resident groups who were challenging the local authority before the fire should have been able to successfully hold the authority to account. This was clear example of a violation of the right to adequate housing.

“Freedom from poverty, hunger and access to the necessary support to live a dignified life – these are things we can enshrine in our laws to improve people’s everyday lives if, as a country, we wish to do this.”

Judith Robertson, chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, said: “Scotland can and should reflect what’s happening in many other countries around the world.

“Taking action to better protect people’s rights by incorporating these international standards into domestic law is all the more important given the context of Brexit and the risks to rights this presents.

“There is the political will in Scotland to look at this. This research shows there is a wealth of international experience and practice – in court rooms and parliaments – for Scotland to replicate and build on when it comes to protecting all of our economic, social and environmental rights.”

Equalities Minister Christina McKelvie welcomed the report which she said would allow debate about “how to make rights real for every member of society”.

She added: “Our vision is for a Scotland where every member of society can live with human dignity and is at the heart of our policies in areas as diverse as justice and education, health and housing.”

Those rights, she claimed, were the “foundations of Scotland’s new social security system” with plans to embed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into future laws.

Rights in real life

ENSHRINING a right to adequate housing in Scottish law could help people experiencing poor housing conditions, says the Scottish Human Rights Commission report.

In 2012 the Scottish Government introduced world-leading legislation giving everyone who was homeless the right to be accommodated.

It could take this further by implementing a national housing strategy to ensure access to affordable and adequate housing.

Those who are in temporary accommodation would need to be moved to longer-term secure housing and any form of housing, whether private or public, long-term or temporary, would have to be physically safe, adequate in terms of space, and free from potential health and structural hazards.

Where temporary accommodation was too damp or too small, tenants could take their case to court.

Providing a right to food would mean addressing the reliance on food banks, argues report author Katie Boyle.

Though social security is largely reserved to Westminster, Scotland could take more steps to provide access to food through other means, such as ensuring all children are getting meals in schools, even during holiday periods.

If people are going hungry they should have access to legal redress.

In Colombia people in desperate need can present themselves before the court without a lawyer and seek assistance from the court, if their circumstances mean they are falling below the minimum required for the essentials of life.

Legislating on the right to healthcare could help address issues faced by many of those suffering from mental health problems.

If this right was introduced, local authorities would be forced to consider the use of day hospitals and supported independent living, along with community-based nursing and local support, as part of an approach that is more human-rights based than the current set-up.