Scottish Human Rights Commission: three new part-time members appointed

Jim Farish, Shelley Gray and Claire Methven O’Brien will take up their positions on 26 September 2022. The role of the SHRC is to promote widespread awareness, understanding of, and respect for human rights.

Part-time members are required to spend 48 days per year on commission business.  The daily fee rate is £280.20.  Each appointment is for a fixed term of 6 years.

The appointments are made by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) whose members formed the selection panel.

Biographical information on the new commission members

Jim Farish

Jim Farish is currently a board member of the Risk Management Authority having retired from the Scottish Prison Service in 2020. During his prison service career he held a number of senior positions including having been Governor in Charge of four prisons, most notably having led the implementation project for and being the inaugural Governor of HMP Grampian in Peterhead. He was also seconded to HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland, where he held the position of Deputy Chief Inspector. He has a strong human rights background, most evidently, having led the project to review the inspection standards for prisons in Scotland, utilising the PANEL principles, to ensure that each of the standards had a clear and unambiguous foundation in Human Rights.

Shelley Gray

Shelley Gray has twenty years’ experience in the third sector in roles spanning engagement, policy and strategy development. She is currently Head of Policy and Communications at Corra Foundation, where she has a focus on human rights, diversity, equity and inclusion and racial justice. She was instrumental in establishing the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) and prior to that worked alongside children and young people at Children in Scotland.

Ms Gray was a member of the drafting group for Scotland’s first National Action Plan for Human Rights (SNAP) and was Co-convener of the SNAP Health and Social Care Action Group.

Participation has been at the heart of all of her roles, with a focus on working alongside people who are seldom heard and often furthest from accessing their rights. She also advocates on human rights issues in a personal capacity as a parent of a child who has Down’s syndrome.

Dr Claire Methven O’Brien

Claire Methven O’Brien has worked as a human rights researcher, practitioner and advocate for more than twenty years. Her main focus is on how businesses impact human rights. Claire regularly provides reports and advice to international and European bodies on legal and policy developments in this area. Claire has also worked extensively with national human rights commissions, companies and governments around the world, in strengthening their capacities to address business-related human rights issues. Claire currently holds teaching and other positions at the University of Dundee, the University of Strathclyde Business School, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

For more information on the SHRC visit here: www.scottishhumanrights.com