Hansard

It gives me great pleasure to speak for the Liberal Democrats in this important debate, as I have done in each of the eight years that I have been a parliamentarian. I am glad that, once a year, we take the time to reflect on the importance of human rights and human rights defenders the world over.

Over the weekend, with the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, we were offered an example, if ever we needed one, of why such reflections and reminders are so critical. For so long, under that brutal dictatorship, the Syrian people have been persecuted, tortured and denied the most basic and fundamental human rights that we are debating today. Sednaya prison, which was pictured on our television screens last year and was known as the slaughterhouse, was one of many places where people suffered—it was just one of the dungeons where thousands of people disappeared.

I am heartily glad that Assad is gone, and he must now face justice for the crimes that he has committed. There is no knowing what will fill the vacuum now that he has left, but we must hope, for the sake of the Syrian people, that this is a genuine turning point and that there will be free and fair elections in line with international law.

In Syria, in Gaza and across the Atlantic in Haiti, we see the measure of the challenge that falls to our generation of human rights defenders. Around the world, human rights, democracy and the rule of law are under threat. We see evidence of that in the oppression of the Uyghur people in China and in Putin’s murderous actions in Ukraine, including his slaughter of civilians in Bucha and his kidnapping and removal of thousands of Ukrainian children.

The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights was forged amid the rubble and atrocity of war some 80 years ago, but it finds symmetry and relevance in the rubble and atrocity of today. Those of us who were born after that time are duty bound to defend the rights for which so many gave their lives, and we must never take those rights and democratic freedoms for granted.

However, we must also look closer to home and identify where we, too, are falling short—and we are. At First Minister’s question time last Thursday, I raised the cases of women in Caithness who are forced to travel 100 miles through snow and ice, in the dark of winter and past deer, for their babies to be delivered in Inverness. A fortnight ago, the Scottish Human Rights Commission published a report that called the situation that those pregnant women faced “barbaric”. The report even revealed incidents in which women have lost their fertility due to complications that have been caused by inequalities in healthcare and delays in accessing Raigmore hospital. It is utterly unacceptable that that has been going on for years under this Government, as a result of the maternity unit at Caithness general hospital in Wick having been downgraded from consultant led to midwife led in 2016.

The SHRC report also investigated the challenges that people in rural parts of Scotland face in accessing their human rights to health, housing and food. I thank my Liberal Democrat colleague Liam McArthur for the work that he did in helping the commission to gather evidence for the report. It found that the housing situation in his constituency of Orkney is so poor that people are being forced to turn down job offers because they cannot find somewhere to live, while even victims of abuse are unable to find accommodation living away from those who have abused them.

Meanwhile, in the Western Isles, parents and carers of children and adults with learning disabilities are having to travel up to 500 miles every week to access education. Too often, they are travelling on unsuitable roads, with little or no access to public transport. In Skye, the road infrastructure has not been upgraded for 20 years, despite a huge increase in the number of visitors to the island. It should go without saying that, no matter where in Scotland you live, you should have parity of access to human rights. At the moment, our rural communities are being left out and left behind, and they are tired of being an afterthought.

As a former youth worker, I was so pleased when we finally passed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which seeks to uphold the rights of children, into Scots law. However, I again feel duty bound—as I did in my intervention on the cabinet secretary—to mention the fact that the age of criminal responsibility in this country is below the international floor that is set by the UN committee. I have mentioned that many times. At the moment, young people as young as 12 can get a criminal record, which we know affects the life chances of those young people. To put that in context, as I said earlier, in Russia and in China that age is set at 16.

I welcome this renewed focus on human rights, and I am glad that we can speak with one voice in recognising their vital importance. However, for the sake of people right across this country, our words need to be backed by Government action.