Our Rights Officer
What are the environmental problems that matter to you?
Our Rights Officer is here to explain what your rights are and how to use them for social and environmental justice. They can meet you online or face to face, and organise workshops, webinars, and events. For more information, read our rights flyer and please share it.
We also want to share your stories of challenges and successes. This could be through videos, podcasts, or other creative ways.
Working together we can:
- Increase awareness of environmental human rights
- Take action to address your environmental concerns
- Use your voices and experience to campaign for better environmental laws.
Want to know more about Scotland’s air pollution, water pollution, and greenspaces and what you can do if you have an issue?
Voices for Justice – lived experience
These accounts from our Advice Service and outreach work give voice to the lived experience of people across Scotland fighting environmental injustices.
Bathing waters designation – murkier than ever?
Bathing water designation came to our attention when we were contacted by the River Almond Action Group (RAAG). In this blog, our Assistant Legal Officer Preslava Todorova analyses how, over two years after our representation to Environmental Standards Scotland, bathing water designation remains murkier than ever …
Defending Cullaloe Forest from environmental harm – Mark’s Voice for Justice
This Voices for Justice comes from Mark, who was concerned about the environmental harm of a local quarry and its storage and processing of incinerator waste, contaminating the adjacent forest. Without the commitment and tenacity of Mark, other concerned residents and local Councillors, pollution controls would not be enforced, and environmental harms would be allowed to continue unchecked …
Participatory decision-making at the Independent Human Rights Fund for Scotland
D. Bowers is a member of the Environmental Justice Network. Last year, D was selected to participate in the decision-making panel for the Independent Human Rights Fund for Scotland …
Petition to protect Scotland’s ancient and native woodlands closed: an update from Help Trees Help Us
In June 2023, we published a Voices for Justice from the Help Trees Help Us’ campaign on saving Scotland’s ancient and native woodlands. After almost five years, the petition was closed. Help Trees Help Us provide an update …
Race & the Right to a Healthy Environment: Lived experiences on access to greenspace and healthy food
Race & the Right to a Healthy Environment aims to establish a benchmark and platform to begin to respond to the priorities of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups in Scotland …
Rights Officer – my work so far
Cornell, ERCS’s Rights Officer, works on raising awareness of environmental rights and supporting equitable participation in environmental decision-making …
Lead shot contamination of soil and water – Mary’s Voice for Justice
Mary Hurry questions her local authority and environmental regulators about contamination from lead shot and encountering a lack of responsibility from all …
Sheriffhall Overarching Objectors – holding the government to account on more roads and more emissions
The community group, Sheriffhall Overarching Objectors, challenge a proposed major road redevelopment that has implications for locals and the Scottish Government’s plans to reduce car kilometres …
Wyndford Residents Union: Defending residents’ rights
The Wyndford Residents Union is fighting to save their home from one of Scotland’s biggest demolition projects proposed by Wheatley Homes Glasgow …
Save Our Shore Leith: Two years of advocating for a clean Water of Leith
SOSLeith have been fighting against sewage pollution for over two years, with little action from environmental regulators …
Bathing water case update: Have the waters cleared?
In recent years, outdoor bathing has become increasingly importance to our health and wellbeing. Yet all is not well – not a day goes by without another sewage scandal, another tale of polluted rivers or beaches clogged with plastic waste …
Saving Scotland’s ancient and native woodlands– Help Trees Help Us
Only 1% of Scotland’s ancient woodland remains and much of it is unprotected, in poor ecological condition and with no special designation. These irreplaceable and complex ecosystems are under threat …
Bathing water case update: the good, the bad, and the ugly
In March, we submitted a formal complaint to Environmental Standards Scotland about the prohibitively high threshold for applicants seeking bathing water designation for Scotland’s beaches, lochs and rivers …
The fight to stop the Clydebank incinerator – Kenny’s voice for justice
“I was fighting for my own health, but I felt as if I was fighting for the health of the people in the hospice, the kids in the primary school and the local community generally …”
Sewage polluted waters and a lack of monitoring – Save Our Shore Leith
Community organisation Save our Shore Leith (SOSLeith) campaigns against the impact of sewage outflows and the lack of monitoring in the Water of Leith – Jim Jarvie explains why and what needs to change …
ERCS challenges Scottish Government over bathing water status
ERCS has made a complaint to Environmental Standards Scotland regarding the government’s unlawful approach to the designation of bathing waters in Scotland …
Sewage sludge spreading – the harm and fight for improved regulation
Rural communities affected by sewage sludge spreading on agricultural land continue to wait for the Scottish Government to act on the human and environmental health risks. Read how community representatives, Doreen and Jo, have been at the forefront of public action against sewage sludge for more than a decade …
Exploring environmental rights with Roma youth activists
Our Rights Officer, Cornell, joined the Friends of Romano Lav youth activists in their local neighbourhood of Govanhill, Glasgow. Together, the group walked around Govanhill and took photos of what they liked, disliked, and wanted to change about their local environment …
Reclaiming contaminated land & unaffordable, unfair access to justice
In the Murieston Valley, Livingston lies a plot of vacant contaminated land which is now a valued local greenspace. Despite significant community concerns, a planning application was approved on appeal. Find out more about their struggle and how “its the financial side that inhibits the small man from doing something” …
Ann’s story – The fight for environmental justice
Ann Coleman, has been challenging developments on behalf of communities and the environment for over 25 years. Our Rights Officer interviewed her to learn more about her fight for environmental justice …
