Meeting of the Parliament 10 December 2024
It is a delight and an honour to open this debate marking human rights day 2024. This year’s theme is “Our rights, our future, right now”. We are asked to reflect on
“how human rights are a pathway to solutions”
and a route to a more
“peaceful, equitable, and sustainable world”.
It is a reminder of the transformative power of human rights. It is, fundamentally, a message of hope.
We are marking not only the signing of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, but the founding of the Council of Europe 75 years ago. One of its founding instruments was the European convention on human rights, which laid the cornerstone for a future based on human rights justice, and which forms part of our domestic law through the Human Rights Act 1998. It is through the ECHR, along with more than 200 treaties, conventions and protocols, that the Council of Europe upholds the rights of millions, holding Governments accountable and ensuring that the principles of freedom, dignity and justice are upheld.
In the face of war in Europe and the regression of human rights and fundamental freedoms across the region, the work of the Council of Europe remains critical. The existence of the ECHR and the various international human rights instruments signed and ratified by UN member states have never been more vital. The world can feel like an increasingly uncertain place, with values that we once took for granted now routinely challenged. Fundamental rights are threatened by a confluence of attacks on civil liberties, a cost of living crisis that has pushed people into poverty and destitution and a climate crisis that is increasingly devastating the homes and livelihoods of the most vulnerable in our global community.
Today is an opportunity for the Parliament to come together and stand firmly behind the message that human rights are a force for good. It is a chance to show our collective resolve and to recommit to respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights in everything that we do.
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has said:
“Human rights have the power to unify us at a time when we need to come together to contend with the existential challenges we face as humanity.”
It is clear, then, that human rights must remain at the centre of renewed action for global peace. In the face of the interconnected challenges of climate change, war and population displacement, the hard work of progress can never cease. The devastating full-scale invasion of Ukraine goes on and looks like it will enter a third year. There is still no sign of a ceasefire in Gaza, nor of sustained progress towards unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance.
Over the weekend, we witnessed and welcomed the fall of the brutal regime in Syria. We join the international community in calling for a peaceful and inclusive political solution that puts the Syrian people first, and for humanitarian aid to reach those most in need. The people of Syria have endured unimaginable suffering under the dictatorship of Assad. Their future must now be determined through a peaceful transition that upholds the rights of all Syrians.
Those are just some of the collective challenges that the world faces. They require collective solutions, underpinned by the shared values that are set out in our international human rights treaties and agreements.
In Scotland we have been on a journey, and there remains much to do. Advancing human rights is central to the Government’s mission to eradicate the scourge of child poverty, build better public services and tackle the climate emergency. We should all be proud of the Parliament’s work to incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 is helping to create a culture of everyday accountability for children’s rights across our public authorities, which will make a real difference to the lives of children and young people in Scotland.
We have further to go, which is why the Government has committed to continue work towards a human rights bill that will incorporate further international standards, including important economic and social rights, and make them part of domestic law.