The devil is in the details:Entrenching human rights protections in the UK’s devolved nations

In states with multilevel governance systems, such as the UK, human rights are subject to variable gradations of implementation based on the political will and the legal competence of the subnational governments to implement international law. Entrenching rights through incorporation secures domestic enforcement, which, in turn, paves the way for proactive human rights culture change and guards against human rights regression. This article examines the future of increasing human rights protections in the devolved nations of the UK in the wake of the Incorporation Reference decision. First, the article reflects on the opportunity to entrench international human rights protections through incorporation as one form of implementation. Next, Scotland’s path to increasing implementation of the UNCRC will be presented, including an examination of the key features of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill. These features are then juxtaposed against the challenges raised in the Incorporation Reference case. International law is the lens through which the analysis is delivered, aligning with UN human rights treaty body guidance and focussed on delivering human rights in national settings. Finally, the article argues that despite the difficulty posed by the interpretation of devolved legal competence delivered in the Incorporation Reference judgment, from the perspective of international law, there remains a great opportunity to entrench human rights in the devolved nations through incorporation legislation and other measures that respect, protect and fulfil human rights

The United Kingdom:Asymmetrical challenges to implementing the CRPD

Equality law in the UK is the dominant prism through which disability is addressed. Countless examples across the UK demonstrate how disabled people’s rights cannot be fully realized unless equality law is delivered in conjunction with the human rights-based approach outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Since the UK ratified the CRPD in 2009, efforts to maximize the transformative potential of the CRPD have been driven from the bottom-up through careful advocacy and political campaigns focused on securing rights for disabled people through the devolved governments in light of the central government’s general apathy for human rights. Sectoral laws and policies have ensured and promoted some specific rights in different areas of disability but these are generated predominantly by the subnational governments. The focus of this contribution is the extent to which the UK’s constitutional framework has shaped implementation of the CRPD