UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW (UPR): what is it and how can you get involved? 22 September 2011

1. www.scottishhumanrights.com UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW (UPR): what is it and how can you get involved? 22 September 2011 Duncan Wilson Duncan.wilson@scottishhumanrights.com

2. What am I going to talk about? • What is Universal Periodic Review? • How does UPR work? • How can you get involved? • What are we doing?

3. 1. What is UPR? A relatively new political process to improve the realisation of human rights. It is: Universal – covers all countries and all human rights Periodic – every four to five years Review – based on three documents: a report by the country, a UN report, a “stakeholder report”

4. How does it work? Four phases: Preparation at national level: consultation, developing reports Working Group at UN asks questions and makes recommendations UN Human Rights Council adopts the report of the review in plenary The country reports on its progress mid-way between reviews (“mid-term review”) (Repeat in a cycle)

5. How does it work? (2) UPR1 (baseline) – UK was reviewed in the first “round” of UPR in 2008. UPR2 (implementation) – this time the focus will be on two things: Have the recommendations from last time been implemented? What developments have their been since last time (i.e. 2008-2012)

6. Phase 1 • Preparation (now to May/June 2012): • Raising awareness • Gathering information • Consultation • Parallel reports – by any civil society organisation (very broad) – due 7 November 2011 at present • State report – currently due Feb 2012 • UN preparation of UPR documents 10 weeks prior to the review • Other opportunities to intervene in preparation

7. Phase 2 • Working Group (May/June 2012): • All 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council plus other states • 3 ½ hours split between presentation by UK (State under review), questions from other States • Facilitated by a “troika”- 3 members of the Human Rights Council selected randomly • Adopts interim report • UK accepts, rejects or withholds a view on recommendations • Interim UPR Report adopted around 48 hours later

8. Phase 3 • Plenary (September 2012): • All 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council plus other states • 3 ½ hours split between presentation by UK (State under review), questions from other States • Facilitated by a “troika”- 3 members of the Human Rights Council selected randomly • Adopts interim report • UK accepts, rejects or withholds a view on recommendations • Interim UPR Report adopted around 48 hours later

9. Programme of work covering adult protection, human rights in healthcare and older people’s rights in social care Concerns from variety of sources about issues such as: Restraint CCTV and other “assistive technologies” Door locking Social isolation and mental health issues Inadequate provision personal care Covert and/or inappropriate medication Malnutrition Dementia care Elder abuse Dignity in Care

10. Human rights focusEuropean Convention on Human Rights • Article 3, ECHR- prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (ICCPR Art.7) • Prohibition on inhuman or degrading treatment • Positive duty to take reasonable steps to prevent ill treatment, protect those at immediate risk of ill treatment and provide remedies where ill treatment occurs. • Examples such as: • Abuse or neglect • Denial of essential medication or aids • Disproportionate use of force or restraint • Grossly inadequate personal care

11. Human rights focusEuropean Convention on Human Rights • Article 8, ECHR- right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence (ICCPR Art.17) • Potential widening scope relating to dignity and autonomy and positive and negative obligations applying to: • Participation in decision making (e.g. decisions about treatment or care, consent to medical treatment, support for decision making etc) • Privacy (e.g. personal privacy at home or in care home, use of personal information etc) • Family life (e.g. separation from spouse in residential care, social isolation) • Physical and psychological integrity (e.g. poor quality care not amounting to inhuman treatment)

12. Empowerment: Charters of rights Charter of Rights for People with Dementia and their Carers: Simple overview of the requirements of human rights for people with dementia and their carers Developed with a key NGO and a cross-party group in Parliament “signed on” by nearly all MSPs Promoted by MSPs in local press Posted in care homes Basis for new National Strategy Opportunity with new Patients’ Rights Charter

13. Ability: evaluating practice The State Hospital: high security forensic mental health hospital for Scotland and Northern Ireland Developed HRBA since 2002 – “traffic light” audit, training, 100 people (staff and patients) involved in considering human rights issues SHRC independent evaluation in 2009: documentary review, interviews and focus groups with staff, patients and carers, human rights indicators Findings: increased respect, work satisfaction, reduced staff stress, patient restraint and seclusion etc. Move away from blanket policies

14. Ability: Care about Rights? Resource pack of films, case studies and information Separate sections tailored to different audiences – older people and their carers, providers of care services, policy makers Distribution to every registered service for older people's care in Scotland and online at www.scottishhumanrights.com/careaboutrights Extensive training for care providers Awareness raising with Regulator Partnership and capacity building with outreach groups

15. Ability: A FAIR framework for decisions F – Facts: what are the important facts to understand? A – Analyse the rights at stake (using sections which explain the rights using relevant examples) I – Identify shared responsibilities: what changes are needed and who has responsibility to bring them about? R – Review actions: have the actions taken been recorded and reviewed and has the individual been involved?

16. Accountability: Adult Protection Promoting human rights based approach to Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 Speaking to Adult Protection Committees and conferences on adult protection and human rights Looking for sustainable ways to integrate human rights into AP guidance Human rights response to historic child abuse – inquiry, remedies, reparation

17. Putting HRBA into practice – why? TSH findings • “I was told when I was coming to Carstairs that I would be leaving my rights at the front door – and it isn’t like that now” • Better for staff and patients: • Increased staff and patient engagement, work-related satisfaction amongst staff and satisfaction among patients over their care and treatment • Reduction in staff stress, anxiety and “fear” of human rights • “Patients are no longer invisible in a blanket policy; you see them as individuals not as a group” • “Patients have increasingly recognised their responsibilities as well as their rights” • More rights respecting culture: • Every interference with someone’s rights, staff, patient or carer, had to be justified: legal, necessary, proportionate; • Decrease in complaints by patients and carers (care & treatment and relating to human rights) • Fewer seculsions, restraints

18. Developing integrated human rights and equality impact assessments Health Inequality and Human Rights Impact Assessment (HIIA) with NHSScotland and SG Health Directorate Overview of global practice on HRIA (Harrison and Stephenson, 2011) Steering Committee Developing pilot 2011/2012; guidance in 2012 Support through pilot, including training Putting HRBA into practice – how? Impact assessment

19. Drivers? Legal Political practical Assessing impact on basis of identity and humanity/ linking specific equality duties to HRA FAIR approach – facts, analysing rights, identifying responsibilities, recalling actions Identifying impacts on absolute rights (and avoiding them) and on qualified rights (and mitigating them) Discussion – self-directed care and support (moving away from residential care) Putting HRBA into practice – how? Impact assessment

20. Putting HRBA into practice – how? Measuring outcomes • Human Rights Measurement Framework • With EHRC, produced by LSE and BIHR • What is a human rights indicator? • Statistical and other data • Link to UN OHCHR and UN treaty bodies work • Structural, process and outcome indicators • starting with five HRA rights – life, degrading treatment, liberty, fair trial, private, family and home life PLUS ESC rights – food, housing, health, education

25. Using public purchasing power to ensurethe protection and realisation of human rights Contracted out public services- social care, housing, prisons security etc Suppliers and supply chain- i.e. NHS equipment Rationale and emphasis of procurement regime to encourage transparency and competition EC guidance and case law conservative in approach to integration of social considerations Opportunities for change- Scottish Social Care Procurement Guidance EC Green paper on modernisation of public procurement framework Inclusion of human rights considerations in technical specifications, selection criteria, award criteria, contractual terms, exclusion of bidders Connected work: procurement

26. Connected work: Integrating human rightsin the Governance of Scotland Assessing state of human rights in Scotland to: Developing a National Action Plan Contribute to UN consideration of UK Develop our Second Strategic Plan Developing a “human rights measurement framework”

27. www.scottishhumanrights.com Scottish Councils Equality Network SHRC and Local Authorities 24 August 2011 Duncan Wilson Duncan.wilson@scottishhumanrights.com