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Dr Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, called the scale of poverty in Scotland “very disturbing” during a speech in Edinburgh on 10 September 2026. He argued that Scotland’s existing rights laws and anti-poverty commitments need to translate into coordinated public action, with people affected by poverty involved in decisions that shape their lives.
What did the commissioner say, and when?
O’Flaherty spoke at a Scottish Human Rights Commission event in Edinburgh. The Commission published a summary of his remarks on 1 October 2026, ahead of Challenge Poverty Week. His exact assessment was: “But of course notwithstanding the foundation stones in place, there is the reality of the scale of poverty in Scotland which is very disturbing.” The Council of Europe’s published speech and the Scottish Human Rights Commission’s account are the sources for the remarks.
Which poverty figures did he cite?
In the speech, O’Flaherty said that one million people in a Scottish population of five and a half million lived in relative poverty, and that one in five children lived in poverty. These are figures he cited, not independently verified current estimates in the speech text. That text does not identify the underlying dataset, statistical reference period or poverty threshold, so the numbers should be read as his account rather than as a fully specified statistical release.
How did he illustrate poverty’s effects?
O’Flaherty described a video call with a young woman from Orkney whose family had complex medical needs. She spoke about the cost and logistics of oxygen equipment, reaching doctors and hospital care from a remote island, and paying for flights, overnight stays and meals when travel was necessary.
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As the Commissioner relayed her words, “some days we have to make a choice to breathe or to eat”. This is a personal account he recounted in his speech, not an interview conducted for the Commission’s summary. It illustrates how health needs and geographic isolation can compound household costs and make access to care harder.
What does a human-rights approach to poverty mean?
O’Flaherty set out three principles for making human rights practical in anti-poverty policy:
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- Public obligations, not discretionary help. Authorities should treat human-rights standards as duties they must meet, rather than as a favour to people receiving assistance. He said those obligations can be invoked explicitly and in detail.
- Equality and non-discrimination. Policy should identify people most likely to be overlooked and make sure they are not left out. He specifically called for attention to rurality; in wider European reflections, he also discussed migrants, Roma communities and LGBTI people.
- Participation by people affected. People experiencing poverty should be involved as rights-holders and partners in decisions, rather than treated only as beneficiaries, recipients or clients.
Why did he call for joined-up action?
Poverty is connected to several parts of life, including food, housing, health care, education and family life. A programme that addresses one area in isolation may not reach the barriers created by another. O’Flaherty therefore warned that fragmented programmes and poor coordination between policy areas or levels of government work against a human-rights approach.
He also argued that voluntary organisations should not be expected to take the place of responsibilities that belong to the state. In this framing, community and charitable support does not remove the public duty to protect rights and address poverty.
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What Scottish measures did he recognise?
The Commissioner acknowledged three policy foundations: incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law; commencement of the socio-economic equality duty; and binding targets to reduce child poverty. He praised these as important steps while arguing that a stronger effort is still needed to make a rights-based approach effective in practice.
He also highlighted the Scottish Human Rights Commission’s role and said its budget was inadequate and it needed sufficient powers to strengthen its work. That is O’Flaherty’s assessment; the Commission summary does not provide an independent funding evaluation.
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