Introduction

Our community-led planning processes involve sharing of power between communities themselves, public agencies and institutions. They are based on the concept of communities having a greater role in setting the agenda for local services and is becoming more established in Scotland’s empowerment policies.

Alongside this, disadvantaged communities, and minority groups in society, have continued their struggles to express and achieve their rights. As a result, we now have laws and policies to promote equality and human rights internationally, in the UK and here in Scotland. 

Community development, inequalities and Human rights

Community development work is about responding collectively to issues and needs that affect the lives of people in communities. It involves taking decisions and community-led action to makes things better. It is also about ensuring that our communities can support all kinds of people who live there, including those often overlooked and easily ignored because they are part of a minority group.

This can include those with unequal access to health, wealth and basic things like decent housing. It also includes those with disabilities, older people, those from different ethnic or cultural backgrounds or others whose needs are not always recognised when we think about our communities.

We know in communities which are trying to improve life for everyone that they want the needs of the most disadvantaged to be considered. It’s also the case that where communities themselves are delivering services and facilities that it’s important to think about how equalities and human rights laws affect how we do this.

Why this matters for community-led planning

Community action plans are about turning careful, considered conversations between local people and services into clear proposals for what communities can do themselves - and how services need to do to be more effective in meeting community’s needs. 

So, for all of us, thinking about the needs of those who are most affected by disadvantage is part of tackling the issues which affect everyone locally. It’s one of the responsibilities that come with shared decision making.

The Scottish Government are looking at the role of community action planning and local Plans for Place as a means of democratic development – ways to share more decision-making power with communities. For this to happen they are keen to support communities to be as representative and inclusive as possible in how community organisations are run and make decisions. This means that equality and human rights ideas will become increasingly important at local level.

Whose rights matter and why?

Everyone's rights matter, and very few people don't face challenges in life. Taking an equality and human rights approach recognises that some groups of people in our communities face additional discrimination, and takes that into consideration when we design community engagement or services. We all want to work towards a society without discrimination and where the rights of people to live a good life are respected, but it's not always clear what that means in practice. 

We produced these webpages to help community organisations who want to make sure their communities are good places to live for all the people who live in them.  This is why we think it’s important to think about equality and human rights when you are producing your Community Action Pan or Local Place Plan.

This doesn’t just matter to those people who are clearly and directly affected by the denial of rights. It's important that we think carefully about our communities when we consider what needs to be done to make them better places, for everyone living there.  This is because we are all interdependent and stronger when all of our rights are being fulfilled

Defining equality and human rights ideas

So, equality and human rights are increasingly part the conversation about how our society works and they are important parts of achieving good community development.   

Equality

• What do we mean?: Everyone should have equal access to opportunities, without discrimination based on characteristics like race, gender, religion, or age.

• Key principle: It's about ensuring people have the same chance to live safe, fulfilling lives, and recognising that different people might need different approaches to achieve the same results.

• Example: Ensuring a person with a disability has the same access to a building as someone without a disability, even if it requires a ramp.

Human rights

• What do we mean?: These are inherent rights all people have simply by being human, and they cannot be taken away.

• Key principle: They are based on principles of fairness, dignity, and respect, and are universal to everyone.

• Examples: The right to life, freedom from torture, the right to a fair trial, and the right to education and political expression are all human rights. 

Other ideas about equality that are important to understand include:

So, what does all this mean for your community?

Some people find the way human rights and equality ideas are expressed difficult to connect with at a community level.  We would suggest that a good starting point comes from these straightforward questions.

• Are all the people in my community able to live their lives to their full potential?

• If not, what are the things that might be stopping people from doing so?

• Are there groups of people that might be affected by more than one factor?

• Do we hear enough from people with protected characteristics about their experiences in our community engagement?

• Are their things that need to be done to combat discrimination and create a more level playing field?

• How could we work together with those affected to get these things done and reflect this in our community action plan?

How people feel about equality and human rights can be a very individual thing. It will be shaped by people's personal experience of their identity and/or discrimination they experience. For this reason, it is important that we approach these issues sensitively.

Equality and human rights in our community-led action plans

If you are part of a community anchor group or network or a wider local steering group, it’s important to remember that the needs of minorities may not be expressed in high numbers in your community engagement.

This is despite the fact that they may experience layers of disadvantage that can have a greater negative impact on their lives than on the wider community.  This in turn may have an impact on the community as a whole. 

For example, if we don’t make the case for necessary support for young people with additional support needs in our schools, this will affect not only their families living locally, but also other young people who are learning there. 

Activity: Structured Conversations

So, if you are producing a new plan or reviewing an existing one, you might find the following exercises useful.

• Discuss what equality & human rights means for people living in your community

• How you make sure that your work to understand the experiences and needs of people living locally includes those with barriers to being heard

• To turn what they tell you into actions in your local plan the benefit those involved and the community as a whole

Conversation prompts