Articles by Ross Reid
A separate human rights committee should be established at the Scottish Parliament because the current system is “haphazard at best”, a report has said.
Th e publication, produced for the Cross-Party Group on Human Rights at Holyrood, said the Parliament’s Justice Committee had “defi ciencies” in discussing issues such as legal aid and prisons.
Th e report was produced by Dr Kurt Mills, senior lecturer in International Human Rights at the University of Glasgow and convener of the Glasgow Human Rights Network.
He said: “We found that whilst there is some consideration of human rights at Holyrood, consideration of such issues is haphazard, at best. Th e committee with the offi cial mandate for human rights, the Justice Committee, exhibits, according to the report, ‘a reductive and sceptical pattern of attitude towards human rights’. It rarely makes reference to the regional and global human rights regimes of which the UK is a member, and when it does, it appears to see human rights merely as a constraint on the administration of criminal justice.” Labour MSP Jenny Marra, deputy convener of the Justice Committee, said the Parliament should consider the call for a human rights committee.
Mills added: “It is clear that for the Scottish Parliament to adequately live up to human rights obligations found in the UK Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights, and many other international human rights instruments to which the UK is a party, it needs a mechanism whereby all relevant legislation can be considered from a human rights perspective.
“Current arrangements are not adequate. Th e most reasonable course of action is to create a human rights committee within the Scottish Parliament to act as a focal point for such review and discussion.” Shabnum Mustapha, director of Amnesty International Scotland, said: “Amnesty International welcomes the fi ndings of the report which has cast a light on some...
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