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On 10 September 2026, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dr Michael O’Flaherty called the scale of poverty in Scotland “very disturbing” at an event in Edinburgh. He argued that Scotland should put human-rights principles into practice more consistently: treat public duties as legal obligations, focus on people most at risk of being overlooked, and involve people experiencing poverty in decisions that affect them.
What figures did O’Flaherty cite?
In his speech, O’Flaherty said that one million people in Scotland lived in relative poverty in a population of five and a half million, and that one in five children lived in poverty. The speech text does not identify the underlying dataset, reference period or poverty thresholds for these figures. They should therefore be understood as figures he cited, not as independently verified current estimates.
How can poverty affect everyday life?
O’Flaherty described a video call with a young woman from Orkney whose family had complex medical needs. As he relayed her account, they faced the costs and practical difficulties of oxygen equipment, reaching doctors and hospital care from a remote island, and paying for flights, overnight stays and meals when travelling for care. The young woman’s words, as reproduced in the official speech, were: “some days we have to make a choice to breathe or to eat”. This is an account relayed by the Commissioner, not a direct interview conducted for this article.
The example illustrates how poverty can compound health needs and the additional costs of distance. O’Flaherty’s wider argument was that poverty crosses areas including food, housing, health care, education and family life; responses confined to separate programmes can miss how those pressures interact.
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What human-rights approach did he propose?
Public duties are obligations, not favours
O’Flaherty said human-rights standards make clear that public authorities have obligations. Meeting them is not a discretionary act of kindness. He argued that those obligations can be invoked explicitly and in detail, making rights a practical basis for public decisions.
Equality requires attention to people at risk of being overlooked
Equal treatment alone may not reach everyone facing barriers. The Commissioner urged decision-makers to identify people most likely to be marginalised and ensure they are not forgotten, with particular attention to rurality. In his wider European reflections, he also discussed migrants, Roma communities and LGBTI people.
People experiencing poverty should help shape decisions
He argued that people affected by poverty should be treated as rights-holders and partners in decisions, rather than merely as beneficiaries, recipients or clients. Participation means involving them in shaping responses, not only asking for views after plans have been made.
What did he say about Scotland’s policies and institutions?
O’Flaherty recognised several foundations in Scotland: 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 steps but said stronger effort was still needed to make a human-rights approach practical.
He also warned that fragmented programmes and poor coordination between policy areas or levels of government can undermine that approach. Voluntary organisations, he argued, should not be expected to replace responsibilities that belong to the state. He said the Scottish Human Rights Commission needed an adequate budget and powers to strengthen its work; that is his assessment, not an independent evaluation of the Commission’s funding.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why did he use the phrase “very disturbing”?
O’Flaherty’s remark was a judgement about the scale of poverty alongside Scotland’s existing rights and anti-poverty measures. He said: “But of course notwithstanding the foundation stones in place, there is the reality of the scale of poverty in Scotland which is very disturbing.” His central challenge was to turn those foundations into coordinated public action that respects legal duties, reaches people at risk of exclusion and gives affected communities a meaningful role.
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The Scottish Human Rights Commission published its account of the speech on 1 October 2026, ahead of Challenge Poverty Week.
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