Judith Robertson set to succeed Alan Miller as Scottish Human Rights Commission chair

The head of a national programme to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination is in line to be appointed chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission.

Judith Robertson, programme director of See Me, will be put forward as a successor to Professor Alan Miller (above), who is set to stand down in five weeks time.

MSPs will be asked to sign off on Robertson’s appointment next week after she was put forward by a selection panel. The former head of Oxfam Scotland would take up the post in late March.

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The full-time appointment is for a fixed term of six years and attracts a salary of £70,000.

Prior to leading See Me, Robertson spent 17 years at Oxfam, first as programme manager for the charity’s poverty programme north of the border then head of Oxfam Scotland.  

The announcement comes in the same week that Miller appeared before Holyrood’s justice committee for the final time before his departure. 

“I think that the main achievement is that the commission is relevant today,” he told MSPs. “Parliament established it back in 2007 with a fair degree of hesitation.

“There were questions about whether Scotland needed a human rights commission and what value or relevance would it have.

“I do not hear those questions anywhere any longer. I hear other questions such as “Why did the commission not do this?” and “Why is it concentrating on that?”, but its relevance and credibility are now beyond question.”