Calls for Scottish Parliamentary Human Rights Committee

A recent report has criticised the human rights record of the Scottish Parliament’s Committees, and in particular its Justice Committee.

The report was produced for the Cross Party Group on Human Rights at Holyrood by the Glasgow Human Rights Network, which had been asked to establish the degree of consideration given to human rights by the Committees generally - and individually.

It found that the Committee system did not take enough account of human rights considerations in its discussions.

Dr Kurt Mills, Convenor of the Glasgow Human Rights Network, said:

“We found that whilst there is some consideration of human rights at Holyrood, consideration of such issues is haphazard at best. The committee with the official 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.”

The report has called for the creation of a separate Human Rights Committee in the Scottish Parliament to ensure human rights considerations are fully taken into account.