Hansard

I do not think that four minutes does the subject justice. I lend the Scottish Green Party’s support to the congratulation of the human rights defenders. In talking about gratitude and respect, the Scottish Government minister is speaking for all of us, not least because of the risks—referred to in the motion—at which those individuals put themselves, their families and their communities.

I will touch on the line in the motion that the Parliament

“reaffirms support for, and commitment to, the work…in all states and nations”.

Like the minister, I welcome our visitors, Konstantin and Laura, from Russia and Zambia, two countries in which there are human rights issues. Of course, there are such issues in Egypt, Spain, Saudi Arabia, the US and Israel. Abuse is abuse, regardless of the Government, the country where it takes place or allegiances, so I hope that we apply that understanding consistently. The human rights defenders were defined as

“People who, individually or with others, act to promote or defend human rights.”

The Scottish human rights defenders fellowship, which was alluded to, offers a

“short period of respite and protection in Scotland”.

Those are fine words and Scotland is to be commended for the initiative.

I also draw members’ attention to the St Andrews education for Palestinian students—STEPS—programme at the University of St Andrews. That international approach demonstrates the Scotland that I want to talk about. I have mentioned in previous debates the talks that took place at Craigellachie in the early 2000s that involved parliamentarians from the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia discussing the dispute over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. There were also the Edinburgh conversations by small groups of academics and retired military personnel that took place in both Edinburgh and Moscow, which led to the maxim of “no first strike” in nuclear war strategy. That maxim formed the basis of the Reagan-Gorbachev summits that brought an end to the cold war. All involved in those discussions were human rights defenders.

My vision for Scotland is for it to be a base for peace talks for truth and reconciliation and a nation promoting and defending human rights and providing respite and refuge. However, we need to look at things slightly differently. Elaine Smith talked about SNAP 1, which was a great initiative, and I hope that its work will continue in SNAP 2. SNAP involved citizen engagement rather than the usual suspects, so a lot of people became involved. I was very pleased to get an amendment to the police legislation that saw a new oath in place whereby police officers swear to uphold citizens’ human rights. When the human rights lawyer John Scott undertook his review of stop-and-search powers, he referred to police officers as front-line defenders of citizens’ human rights. That is not the situation that we see elsewhere, whether that is Spain, Israel or Russia, where the police are used as instruments of the state, as other members have mentioned. The targeting of journalists is another concern to which members have referred; it involves an attack on the truth and a wish to distort the truth of situations.

Human rights defenders also address the issue of human trafficking. There is a lot of awareness of the indicators of trafficking and slavery and it is important that we appraise the evidence of the trafficking of young women and girls around the planet to satisfy what is called a “growing demand” fuelled by misogyny. I believe that we need to look at all our policies in that area, including our approach to prostitution, in order to assess whether they are helping or hindering human rights. Members also referred to the zero tolerance approach and figures that show a disproportionate impact on women and young girls. I commend the front-line defenders of rights in that area: the trafficking awareness raising alliance—TARA—support service, Scottish Women’s Aid, Rape Crisis and, indeed, Police Scotland. We know about the controlling and coercive behaviour involved in domestic violence, but it is also a feature of human trafficking, whether that is about young women being trafficked into prostitution or about young footballers from Africa.

Human rights are nothing if the state cannot evidence that it is responding to abuses. I support the motion.