EM Race Equality & Human Rights Network

Last Meeting

Tuesday 16 September 2025

Merchants House, Glasgow

‘One Year on from CERD Concluding Observations 2024’, with Prof Angela O’Hagan – Chair, Scottish Human Rights Commission

Agenda

Background

The Ethnic Minority Race, Equality and Human Rights Network evolved from the EM National Resilience Network (EMNRN).

In March 2020 the EMNRN was formed to respond to the social, economic, health, cultural and welfare challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Between March 2020 and May 2023 the EMNRN responded strategically to communities needs by:

Developing community and rights holder intelligence on what was occurring in communities
Acting a platform of solidarity and support to engage Scottish Government and other key duty bearers such as the NHS, Public Health Scotland and Police Scotland
Provided practical service provision and capacity support via emergency sustenance fund, digital transition fund, tackling loneliness and isolation, multilingual mental health support. Research commissioning and vaccine inclusion and information fund.

As the Scottish Government has continued its transition from emergency health response back to core race, equality and human rights work EMNRN members have engaged in a consultation period with the network secretariat BEMIS Scotland to assess how best the network can respond to the present policy landscape.