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ABSTRACT
Literature, most notably in anthropology and international law, has explored experiences and contributions of local-level actors in efforts to realise international human rights. This article contributes a new and complementary perspective to one aspect of this scholarship, on the localisation of international rights language. It focuses on the localisation of legal language in a European context. It explores claims by civil society actors about the applicability of legal human rights standards, drawing upon data generated during the participative mapping process that underpinned Scotland's first National Human Rights Action Plan. The article provides a qualitative case study of engagements with three particular rights – the right to life, the right not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to respect for private and family life. It finds significant evidence of civil society actors using the language of human rights law to anchor interpretive claims about how the rights should apply, in a way that is prescribed, but not defined by, authoritative institutional interpretations. The case study reveals how interpretive engagement with human rights law corresponds to a sense of entitlement to use the language of international human rights. It thereby contributes to a richer understanding of the drivers of, and risks to, local-level ownership of human rights language, highlighting insights for both scholarship and human rights advocacy.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our reviewers for their invaluable comments, and Alison Hosie for being available to answer queries about the research data. We would also like to thank Clowance Wheeler-Ozanne for her research assistance on judicial interpretations of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Any errors remain our own.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Elaine Webster (LLB Hons, MA, MA, PhD) is a Lecturer in the Law School, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law, at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. She teaches on a number of courses on human rights in the UK, European human rights law and human rights theory and practice. Her research interests are broadly in the fields of European and international human rights law, human rights interpretation and human rights education.
Deirdre Flanigan is a qualified solicitor working in Glasgow specialising in housing, human rights, employment and adults with incapacity law. She has an LLB (Hons) and a Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Edinburgh and an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Human Rights Centre at the National University of Ireland. She was formerly the Outreach Coordinator at the Scottish Human Rights Commission.