Hansard

Although it has been 21 years since its adoption by the UN General Assembly in 1998, the UN declaration on human rights defenders remains relatively unknown in the public sphere. It is not a legally binding instrument, but it comprises a series of principles and rights that are based on the human rights standards that are enshrined in other legally binding international instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

An important part of the declaration’s value derives from the fact that it represents a collective effort, across state and institutional boundaries, to better reiterate, strengthen and embed human rights norms across societies, by way of practical support for human rights defenders.

It is encouraging to note that an increasing number of states are considering adopting the declaration as binding national legislation. We welcome the establishment of the Scottish human rights defender fellowship, in partnership with the University of Dundee, and all that will be done to protect those who are at risk as a result of their work protecting human rights around the world; it is a testament to the Scottish Government’s commitment to a modern human rights culture that we do so.

Human rights defenders are defined in the declaration as people who, individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights across the full range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The declaration is designed to help human rights defenders be supported and protected while carrying out their work—work that can be dangerous and marginalised in many contexts, as we have heard.

Part of the declaration’s strength is that it speaks to all of us—not just to countries and human rights defenders. Its full title is the “Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms”, which reminds us that we all have a part to play.

Everyone who cares about strengthening and evolving human rights culture in Scotland is deeply concerned about the threat that Brexit poses. The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 could allow the removal of the EU charter of fundamental rights from our domestic law, and the Scottish Government’s opposition to that was brushed aside. If Brexit goes ahead, the human rights protections that British citizens currently enjoy will cease to exist, or will be watered down in significant ways across such areas of life as healthcare, social security and privacy.

I welcome the pre-emptive steps that the Scottish Government has taken to ensure that the national task force for human rights leadership considers the best way to enshrine the values of the EU charter of fundamental rights in Scots law. That action sends a strong message about where we stand.

The threat to Scotland’s evolving human rights culture does not stop with the withdrawal act. Former Prime Minister Theresa May was unequivocal that she wanted the statute book on human rights to be torn up. She advocated the repeal of the Human Rights Act 1998 and an abandonment of the ECHR.

The ECHR, in contrast to the declaration on human rights defenders, is well-known in the public sphere. All decisions of public authorities in the UK must be ECHR compliant, and, since 2000, application of the convention has changed law and decision making for the better, in meaningful ways, for ordinary people.

The ECHR is a treaty between the member states of the Council of Europe, not the EU, but that is not the point. Theresa May might be gone, but the threat to human rights in Scotland from the right wing of British politics is real. The ECHR is so involved in the fabric of civic society in this country that it is impossible to imagine having to unpick it due to future regressive action on human rights law, but such a nightmare scenario could happen. We are already too familiar with nightmare scenarios being inflicted on vulnerable people in Scotland and across the UK as a result of austerity and welfare reform policies in recent years.

Today’s debate is an opportune moment, therefore, to remind ourselves of the state’s duties, as laid out in the 1998 UN declaration, and to pledge to continue to support those principles and hold UK Governments to account on them. Those duties include the protection, promotion and implementation of all human rights, not just those which are politically expedient.