The British Institute of Human Rights has criticised Scotland over the age of criminal responsibility and the law allowing a defence of "justifiable assault" for parents who hit their children.

The organisation describes this as degrading treatment and adds that holding children criminally responsible from the age of eight is "internationally unacceptable".

However the Scottish Government, along with the Welsh Assembly, is praised for having a more supportive attitude to human rights and international obligations under such treaties as the Convention on the Rights of the Child than the UK Government, which intends to abolish the Human Rights Act and replace it with a UK Bill of Rights.

The Scottish Government is also currently consulting on a planned increase in the age of criminal responsibility.

The report from the BIHR is a shadow report - intended to accompany and critique the UK Government's own report on progress, which UN member countries are required to submit every four and a half years.

It was produced with input from more than 175 charities and other civil society organisations, and claims that the UK has failed to fully meet 81 out of 85 recommendations made by the UN in 2012 to improve human rights protections in Britain.

It said the vast majority of recommendations covering areas such as children's rights, violence against women, discrimination and criminal justice had not been met.

In some areas, such as adequate standard of living, the situation has even got worse, according to the report which says government cuts to welfare and legal aid reforms were among the key factors putting the human rights of British people at risk.

The planned scrapping of the Human Rights Act will lead to less protection of human rights, the report says, expressing little faith in the concept of a British Bill of Rights.

Stephen Bowen, Chief Executive of BIHR said most of the report's recommendations were aimed at the UK Government but there were also lessons for the Scottish Government. "The UK Government needs to listen, not just to the United Nations but to the voices of the huge range of organisations closer to home that have shared their serious concerns with the British Institute of Human Rights," he said.

"They are troubled the Government is taking the UK towards further isolationism and disregarding the United Nations, worsening the situation with welfare and legal aid cuts, and wanting to scrap the Human Rights Act, weakening its accountability for our rights at home as well as internationally."

Scottish charities including the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), HIV Scotland, Children in Scotland and Alzheimer's Scotland were among those which helped to draw up the report.

Ruchir Shah, policy officer at SCVO said the criticisms of Scottish policy were mostly technicalities, and added: "We wanted to make sure the report reflected the wider picture in the devolved nations. There is a pretty aggressive approach to human rights by the present UK Government. The way in which the Scottish Government is approaching human rights is a lot more progressive."