Hansard

First, I must declare an interest in respect of my membership of the Law Society of Scotland, and my legal consultancy with Ross, Harper and Murphy—not least because my colleague Cameron Fyfe is running what is likely to be the test case on children's hearings.

This has been one of the Parliament's best debates, with extremely good speeches from all parts of the chamber. Many of the issues have been addressed. I pay tribute to David McLetchie and the Conservative group for giving us the opportunity to debate the subject.

A number of interesting points have emerged from the debate. There seems to have been a slight movement on the Executive's part on the question of a Scottish human rights commission. I know that Jim Wallace is personally committed and sympathetic to such a commission, as indeed are other Liberal Democrats, whose commitment to that cause has emerged over quite a long time. More interesting, in some ways, is the fact that the Conservatives—not perhaps noted over the years for their forward thinking on some human rights issues—make a commitment in their motion to the establishment of something like a Scottish human rights commission. That is significant, notwithstanding the rather limited remit for that commission, which David McLetchie described. It is also significant, judging by the excellent speeches of Gordon Jackson and Hugh Henry, that there seems also to be an open mind on the Labour benches on a Scottish human rights commission.

I want to pick up where Michael Matheson left off, in support of a Scottish human rights commission. A few weeks ago, Bryce Dickson, the Northern Ireland human rights commissioner, spoke to the proposed cross-party human rights group. David McLetchie was good enough to come along and I like to think that that was when the seed of the idea was planted in his mind. Anyone who heard Bryce Dickson on that occasion could not fail to be aware of the commission's importance in the developing process in Northern Ireland. Of course, Northern Ireland has its unique features, but it is a civic society, just as Scotland is. Notwithstanding those unique features, Northern Ireland needs human rights in the way that Hugh Henry described—not as a matter for the law or for lawyers, but as a matter for individual citizens across the gamut of civil society.

I will dwell a little on that particular point. It takes courage for a Government to establish a human rights commission, as no one likes to fashion a rod for their own back. The commission should have the power to investigate on its own initiative cases of alleged human rights violations. It should have the power to conduct wider-ranging inquiries on more general human rights issues. Some people have suggested to me that some of the more specific investigations that have taken place in Scotland, from Orkney onwards, might have been avoided had a commission been in place, as it could have taken such issues on board. The commission should have powers to investigate, to compel witnesses and to require the production of documents. It should also have the power to support complainants who bring court proceedings, which is a well-established line of development, if I may call it that, that exists already in race relations, in the new disability commission that is being established and so on. It is important that the commission should also have the right to scrutinise legislation, which was David McLetchie's central point.

I invite the Opposition parties and members of the Labour party, who may still have doubts, to consider and discuss the matter. I invite them to speak to the Scottish Human Rights Centre, which is the expert in this field, or to Amnesty International, which also knows a lot about it. I ask members to join those of us who have argued this cause for a while in building on the work of the Scottish Human Rights Centre, which will make representations to the Executive soon. Perhaps the minister will receive a cross-party deputation from members on the matter of a human rights commission.

We must try to move the issue forward, with a view to achieving progress, if at all possible, by 2 October, when the Human Rights Act 1998 will come into force across the UK.

Ultimately, to revisit Hugh Henry's perceptive point, this issue is not just about lawyers—it is about human rights, citizens' rights and the rights of the individual in our new democracy in Scotland. A human rights commission could go a long way in realising human rights in a way that has not been the case to date.

I ask members to consider, individually and collectively, the establishment of a human rights commission, to investigate and to give their support to the concept, on which the Government has already expressed its general support.