 The next item of business is a debate on motion 7133, in the name of Christina McKelvie, on international human rights days. I would invite those members who wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons, and I call on Minister Christina McKelvie to speak to and to move the motion around 10 minutes, please minister. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I'm pleased to open today's debate marking international human rights day and the international day of human rights defenders. On 9 and 10 December, important dates in the calendar are the reminders of the universal and inalienable human rights that belong to everyone, rights that were unanimously endorsed by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948. Those important days serve to celebrate the work of the thousands of campaigners, activists and human rights defenders who work throughout the world to promote and protect human rights. Human rights are transformative in both their intent and their effect. They guide this Parliament in its work, and they also define a programme of action for the world at large. Let me quote the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Fylker Turk, who summed up the role and necessity of human rights, saying, and I quote, Human rights are humanity's common language. They provide a distinctive voice of conscience, reason and wisdom in a fragmented world. He said, we need to implement human rights in a way that, and I quote again, transforms us as a society that shows us how we interact with each other, how we interact with communities and how we care for each other. The High Commissioner calls for conscience, reason and wisdom in a world of turmoil and his emphasis on the transformative role of human rights speaks directly to all members of this Parliament, and we all can contribute to achieving that vision. We mark International Human Rights Day and Human Rights Defenders Day because we believe in dignity, decency and humanity and the values that inspired the Universal Declaration. The Scottish Government stands in solidarity with everyone who promotes and defends human rights. Today, I want to pay special tribute to the thousands of human rights defenders around the world who challenge human rights abuses and hold the powerful to account. They are deserving of our admiration and support and our profound gratitude and respect. In 2018, we established the Scottish Human Rights Defender Fellowship in partnership with the University of Dundee, Amnesty International and Frontline Defenders as a way to lend practical support for those defending human rights. In the past five years, we have welcomed human rights defenders from 11 countries. This year, we are honoured to welcome junior and risker from Kenya and Indonesia respectively. In Kenya, civil society and civic spaces are facing increased attacks. In the face of this, journalists and women human rights defenders in particular continue to work courageously to expose human rights abuses and hold authority to account. In Indonesia, civic spaces are also shrinking. On Tuesday, a new criminal code containing over 600 articles was passed. This code, which has been described as a significant blow to human rights in Indonesia by Amnesty International, is far reaching and could further oppress and persecute minority groups such as LGBTI people. All human rights defenders are at risk, but there are increasing risks to those defending land, indigenous rights and communities facing the impacts of climate change. In the decade between 2012 and 2022, 1,733 land and environmental defenders were killed as a direct consequence of their work. As community organisers and advocates, women are often at particular risk. I am pleased that the Government has made £50,000 funding available to create a new fellowship based at the University of Dundee, an announcement that was made last month at COP 27 by my colleague Mary McCallan, the Minister for Environment. The new fellowship will build on existing Scottish support for human rights by giving women human rights defenders from the global south the opportunity to spend several months in Scotland where they can continue their work in a place of safety and with support. As a modern progressive nation, it is incumbent on us to demonstrate our own leadership in human rights. Scotland has a responsibility to lead by example and to ensure that its own human rights record meets the highest of standards. Thankful indeed for the Minister giving way. It has now been over a year since the UK Supreme Court recommended the changes that were required to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child being incorporated into Scotland. That is a year that has gone by where children are still denied access to justice and rights. I just wonder if the Minister can tell us when we can expect those changes to be brought to Parliament. I reassure Alex Cole-Hamilton that we remain absolutely committed to the incorporation of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child as far as possible within devolved competence and in doing that as soon as practicable. We are currently engaging with the UK Government about the amendments to the bill to establish if they are broadly content that the amendments bring the bill within legislative competence and to reduce the risk of another referral to the Supreme Court. The timetable for bringing the bill back to Parliament for reconsideration stage cannot yet be confirmed but I can reassure and prepare preparations that are under way for that. I am going to carry on because I think we are pretty tight in time. I will carry on at another point. Within devolved powers, our human rights bill in Scotland will give effect to a wide range of internationally recognised human rights. It will strengthen domestic legal protections by making them enforceable in Scots law. The bill will include provision to ensure equal access to everyone to the substantive rights contained in the bill, including LGBTI people and older people. In addition to incorporating rights from core existing UN human rights treaties, it will also establish a new right to a healthy environment. The Government has a clear vision for human rights in Scotland. That includes resolutely defending the existing human rights act in the face of the UK Government attempt to replace it with a British Bill of Rights. The human rights act is one of the most important statues ever passed in the UK Parliament. It plays a critically important role in protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the whole of the United Kingdom. It has woven into the fabric of the constitutional settlements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It has a 22-year track record of delivering justice, including for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. It has ensured that gay couples have the same housing rights as heterosexual couples. It has protected the rights of disabled people and older people who are receiving care, and it has enabled victims of Hillsborough disaster to obtain justice. In other words, the human rights act has brought human rights home. However, the UK Government's ill-considered Bill of Rights poses a real and present danger to our most fundamental rights and freedoms. The bill has been roundly condemned by some of the UK's most eminent legal experts. It was the subject of repeated expressions of concern when the UK's human rights record was reviewed by the UN Rights Council in November. Even Liz Truss and her short-lived tenure as Prime Minister seem to have understood the dangers posed by the bill. She halted its progress at Westminster and sacked the Secretary of State for Justice. For the time being, the bill and its principles architect are back. The proposals in the bill are alarming. If passed, it would substantially change the convention rights embedded in the Scotland Act and put the UK on a collision course with the Council of Europe. However, that all still remains uncertain even to this afternoon. The bill might yet be shelved for the third time by a second Prime Minister. The Secretary of State for Justice has no mandate to force through this bill of rights, repealing and replacing the human rights act, formed no part of the UK Government's manifesto. For our part, the Scottish Parliament has repeatedly expressed its support for the Human Rights Act. We have called on the UK Government to avoid any action that would weaken human rights protections in Scotland and throughout the UK. I am grateful to the minister for giving way. As she knows, the only Government in the United Kingdom that has been taken to court in respect of the violation of human rights is the Scottish Government. That was in relation to the freedom of religion or belief laws or rights granted under the European Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Scottish Government was found to have breached those human rights in relation to the closing of churches and other places of worship. Can I ask the minister what the Scottish Government's reflection is on the outcome of that court decision and what will change in the way that it views that particular human right going forward? I hold faith and belief within my portfolio and I meet faith and belief leaders very regularly in my work in this place. I emphasise to Stephen Kerr that the work that we do in this Government is that we speak to people, we understand their concerns and we take those concerns on board. Unlike the Government for which he supports at Westminster, where so many lawyers, academics, national human rights institutions and civil society campaigners have condemned the UK Government's approach to human rights, so let's not take any lessons from the UK on that. Eminent former judges such as Lady Hale, Lord Manson and Lord Sumpton have all made clear their concern. The UK Government is not, contrary to the justice secretary's claim, listening to such concerns unlike we are. Rather, as Martha Spencer, Pute Martha Spurrier, director of liberty put it, they are repeatedly changing the rules to suit themselves. They are now playing, planning to rip up the basic human rights and protections that we all rely on, so I will not take any lessons from Tories in this place talking about ripping up human rights protections when that is exactly what they want to do with their proposals. The important attention is to make themselves untouchable while not in this place they won't be. For our own position, as shared by the Welsh Government colleagues, in their view, the UK Government's proposals represent a serious regression on human rights in the UK and at a time when it has never been more important to uphold international law. Changes affecting Scotland must not be made without the explicit and unequivocal consent of this Scottish Parliament. I opened the debate with a quote from Falker Took, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and will return again to his words. In condemning human rights abuses, he called for and I quote, a new energy that motivates young people around the world. That call to action is one that I endorse. We need to strive harder with continued vigour and energy here in Scotland and on the international stage in order to realise the vision that was endorsed in the UN in 1948. That is why I invite this Parliament to reaffirm our shared commitment to the fundamental principles and common values that are expressed in the universal declaration of human rights, to work resolutely to ensure that those rights are respected, protected and fulfilled. I move the motion in my name. I forgot to refer members to my register of interests because I am a trustee of a charity that is set up, the Freedom Declared Foundation, which is about the protection of freedom of religion or belief. That will be noted now on the record. I would like to advise members that we have time in hand across the afternoon should that encourage interventions, the making of and or accepting of. I just thought that I should point that out. I now call on Rachel Hamilton to speak to and to move amendment 7133.2 around seven minutes. Around the world there are, sadly, still so many examples of human right abuses and violations that happen every single day. Today I will speak about just three places where we know that human rights are under threat. In China, we heard just last week of the illegal arrest and assault of the BBC journalist who was in Shanghai to cover a protest. That was a shocky example of what can happen in China. Unfortunately, it is nowhere near the worst of what has happened in recent years, as the country has slid further towards disgraceful restrictions on fundamental rights and freedoms. The suppression of democratic protests in Hong Kong was atrocious. The state was determined to exert a depressing show of force against normal people who bravely took to the streets to speak up for their own rights. The treatment of eager Muslims in Xinjiang has been despicable. We still cannot know the full extent of the evil acts that have taken place, but from what we do know, there is more and more evidence of genocide. I hope that everyone across the chamber could support the Prime Minister's recent statement when he said that China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests a challenge that grows more acute as it moves towards even greater authoritarianism. In Ukraine, we are also seeing the tragic reality of a country controlled by a dictatorship. Russia's war in Ukraine has brought the horror of war back to Europe for the first time in years. In town after town, we have seen that Vladimir Putin's army committed horrendous acts against local civilian populations. No matter how much Russia tries to deny it and deflect the reality, it is a listening of appalling human rights abuses. Turning to Iran, I want to commend the immense bravery of the local people there, particularly the women who have decided that enough is enough and that they will no longer tolerate the systemic discrimination that they face any longer. Violence against women and girls is a problem everywhere, but in Iran it has been state-sponsored for decades. It is inspiring and upsetting in equal measure to see so many women risk their lives in the name of freedom. Today's debate is supposed to be on all of those human rights abuses and the people who strive to defend human rights globally. It is supposed to be a debate whether the Scottish Parliament unites as one to reaffirm our commitment to the universal and inalienable rights and freedoms in the universal declaration of the human rights. It is supposed to be a debate about international human rights day, but the Scottish National Party Government decided that making a political attack at home was more important. It decided that provoking grievance on these shores was a better use of our time. It opted to use its motion for today's debate to criticise the UK Government without foundation. Plain constitutional politics with an issue like this shows what they are about. For this Government, everything is a reason to increase division and provoke grievance—even international human rights day. However, if the SNP wants to make this debate about issues closer to home, I suggest that they make it about the vitally important issues right here in Scotland. Well, if you might know what I am just about to make the point about, let's make this debate about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children's Bill. If Karen Adam wants to tell me why the Scottish Government cannot produce the timetable so that we can implement the UNCRC, I'd be very grateful. Karen Adam? I do thank the member for taking my intervention. I would like to ask the member if she has noted the SHRC's comments in regard to the Bill of Rights. Rachel Hamilton? Yes. The UNCRC Bill protects children's human rights and it was a bill passed by this entire Parliament—SNP, Conservative, Labour, Lib Dems, Greens—we all backed that Bill. But the SNP chose to use that Bill not to do good but to make shameless political points. They exploited it to create a pre-election showdown with the UK Government. The SNP's actions were an embarrassment to the people of Scotland. Yes. Alex Cole-Hamilton? I'm very grateful to Rachel Hamilton for giving away. Does she agree with me that the revelation that the Scottish Government was told by officials that it might be out with legal competence and subject to legal challenge, but that was withheld from this chamber, was material information that we could have debated, could have amended the Bill, so that it was legally competent and avoided that legal challenge? Where is the Bill now? Rachel Hamilton? I completely agree that your comments are supported by Bruce Adams and the Children's Commissioner and others today who are specifically looking for this Bill to come forward. For this Government to produce a timetable and lodge a motion to publish amendments to progress the UNCRC, for the life of me, I cannot understand why that is so difficult in such a long period of time. We all worked so hard to get to this point. Lord Reid said that the Bill had been deliberately drafted in a way that went beyond the competency of Holyrood and would undermine the Scotland Act. Despite being warned about the Bill's problems, the SNP charged ahead with the sole aim of pinning the blame on the UK Government, despite knowing that the problems were purely legal and that nothing to do with the Bill's principles, they used it to attack the UK Government repeatedly. Despite everyone in here agreeing, as we do today, that a legally competent UNCRC Bill would be a positive thing, they decided that creating a grievance was more important and for proof that the SNP's motivations were purely political, looked at what has happened to the Bill since. It has not been passed by this Parliament, the Scottish Government has dragged the heels, the Scottish Government's actions delayed the Bill coming into law and now they are so distracted that progress on the Bill has ground to a complete halt. Prioritising this grievance over protecting the rights of the child is hardly the progressive politics that this Government would have the country believe that it stands for and it is a shameful way to act. Today, although the Scottish Conservatives MSPs will raise human rights abuse and champion human rights defenders across the globe, we will also hold the SNP to account for their failures at home. They consistently want to point the finger down south often without any justification. When it comes to what is happening right here in Scotland, they stay silent and unless, of course, there is a way to attack the UK Government, by their actions they have let down this Parliament and made a mockery of what we should be trying to achieve. Too often this Parliament is not focused on what really matters, it does not focus on the people's priorities, on the children's priorities, it does not make the necessary difference to people's lives right here in Scotland, it is exploited by the SNP to further their own selfish political obsession. Even if it means sideliving a children's rights Bill, it is absolutely disgraceful or railroading a debate on international human rights day. Thank you, Ms Hamilton. I now call on Pam Duncan Glancy to speak to and move amendment 7133.1, a generous five minutes, Ms Glancy. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I move the amendment in my name. Presiding Officer, this Saturday is human rights day, a day that is always special, but particularly so this year, the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It sets out that human rights are inalienable, interdependent and indivisible. Their error is not because of our characteristics but because we are human, they belong to everyone. That is why I am so angered by the Tory Government's assault on them. Dominic Rab's Bill of Rights project picks these apart, takes them away and undermines the fundamental principle that rights belong to everyone. A more accurate name could be the Bill of Wrongs. The theme of human rights day this year is dignity, freedom and justice for all, but this Tory Bill threatens all of those things. A coalition of human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and the Human Rights Consortium, have said that the legislation is unnecessary, unevidence, unworkable and unwanted, and that it will disempower many, and I agree. The Human Rights Act works well. It is one of Labour's greatest achievements. Human rights do not discriminate, but the Bill of Rights proposed does. It threatens to create divergence between the rights that are protected in our domestic law and those protected by Strasbourg. Challenging abuse of human rights will increasingly have to be taken to the European Court at a costly and lengthy process, preventing those who cannot afford to do so from defining their rights. That is why I support the commitment to further incorporation of international treaties into Scots law. Doing so will empower people across Scotland to call out human rights abuses and allow them to claim their own rights. First, the Government must address the competency issues in the UNCRC Bill. In the years leading up to the introduction of that Bill, a movement of young people led the fight for incorporation. They rightfully celebrated an achievement that was very much theirs, and now they are frustrated because the impact of that achievement has been quashed by an incompetent bill. That is a failure that sits with this Government and is made worse the longer it takes for them to fix the problem. As Martin Luther King said, a right delayed is a right denied. That is why our amendment today calls on the SNP to set out a timetable for the reintroduction of the Bill. I urge that it set that out and a process that delivers incorporation as soon as possible. We must also be clear that incorporation alone is not enough. The Government must also ensure that its laws and actions enable the realisation of human rights. It should be taking a human rights-based approach to policymaking, all-policy and budgeting. Not only can we not see that it is doing so, but the lack of transparency over what it is spending makes it difficult to assess whether the Government really is using the maximum available resources to achieve the realisation of rights. I look at the reality for many people in Scotland today, which makes clear the scale of the challenge that we all in this chamber must rise to. The disability pay gap is 18.5 per cent. Disabled people are more likely to experience harassment and discrimination compared to their non-disabled peers and they are more likely to live in poverty. They are not able to reach their full potential because they are being denied their rights. Unpaid carers—the people who are stepping in in the absence of a system that properly supports disabled people—are struggling to get by. The Scottish Government could take targeted action, but it has so far failed to do so in the cost of living packages that it has offered. It could support local authorities to offer respite care provisions, which can meet demand, allow carers time out—something that is impossible for many, meaning that they miss out on so much. I recently attended the launch of Baroness Helena Kennedy's report on asylum provision in Scotland and the park in hotel tragedy. It highlighted the injustices faced by migrants waiting years for proper accommodation and for healthcare, left in hotels without any support. Rape Crisis Glasgow's Ruby project shared with me their concerns about the number of migrant women using their service who are receiving no help with their mental health. That is not a system that is empowering people to realise their rights. It is a system that is actively limiting them and we should use international human rights day to realise those rights and think about what more we can do. While immigration is a reserved matter, the care support, healthcare, housing and education of refugees and asylum seekers is almost wholly provided by local authorities who are being underfunded by the Scottish Government and a health service, the SNP has led into crisis. The list of human rights failures sadly goes on. Stonewall research found that 37 per cent of trans people have avoided healthcare treatment for fear of discrimination. Six per cent of trans employees were physically attacked at work and only half of LGBT staff agreed that equality policies in the workplaces offer protections to trans people. None of that has been helped by the discourse around the GRR Bill, which has allowed trans people's rights and women's rights to be pitted against each other in the midst of a culture war that has been toxic for everyone involved. The truth is that women's rights, such as those of other groups that I have spoken about, are all being eroded by a Government that is underfunding services that exist to protect our dignity and safety, such as the Glasgow rape crisis centre, which is currently only able to meet a quarter of demand because it is not receiving enough funding. Our rights are also being undermined by a refusal to properly pay social care workers, predominantly women, and they are being let down by a legal system that does not provide victims of sexual assault with an advocate. We can see the challenge ahead as great, as a result of the pandemic. Right now, people are not afforded the dignity and equality that human rights exist to protect, Scotland has an opportunity to fix that. To do so requires transparency, accountability, meaningful participation and brave choices, if we are to achieve the full realisation of our rights. Those are what we on those benches expect. The SNP has nailed the sound bites, but they must also put their money where their mouth is. This year, more than ever, that is true. We will lead action by our Government in our services, our communities, our streets, our homes and in our pockets, because, whether or not others suggest, we look further afield, where, after all, the human rights begin in small places close to home. Thank you, Ms Duncan-Glancy. I now call Alex Cole-Hamilton a generous for a minute. I am grateful to Christina McKelvie for tabling this motion today. In 1948, with the memories of genocide and atrocity of the Nazis, still fresh in the global consciousness, people from across the globe came together with one simple but far from easy task, to have acknowledged in legislatures like this one around the globe an inalible and immutable fact of human life, that all humans are born free and are born equal. It took an enormous amount of willpower, hard work and hope to create that universal declaration of human rights that we celebrate today and those defenders who back it up day in day out. Reflecting it upon the declaration, Eleanor Roosevelt, the first chairperson of the UN commission on human rights and the heart of the driving force behind it said, where, after all, do universal human rights begin in small places close to home, so close and so small they cannot be seen on any maps of the world, yet they are in the world of the individual person. That epitomises for me what the universal declaration has done for all of us. It has given individuals the agency to uphold their own human rights in courts. This has created profound ramifications across the globe, not least on our shores. In Scotland, the UNDR has shone a light and put a stop to horrific practices such as the unlawful detention in our care homes, degrading conditions in our prisons and introduced legal representation during police questioning. Just as it is important to celebrate the huge progress we have made, it is equally, if not more important, to acknowledge how far we have yet to go. This year, we have witnessed the dark forces that seek to destroy our human rights in their most extreme forms. We have witnessed the despotic leader seek to invade and snatch sovereignty from Ukraine. A World Cup football stadium built upon the deaths of hundreds of migrant workers and China's continued genocide toward the Riga people to name but a few. We have also witnessed the erosion of our human rights much closer to home. As has been mentioned, the Conservative Government is currently proposing to scrap the current Human Rights Act and instead replace it with its Bill of Rights. If such a legislation were to pass, it would have huge ramifications for individual human rights in our country. We should make no mistake that this bill seeks to undermine the fundamental principle of human rights and the very same principle that Eleanor Roosevelt and dozens more fought so hard to enshrine all those years ago. This bill would limit the ability of people in prisons to bring forward human rights claims. It would make it even harder for people to seek asylum, and it would make it significantly more difficult to bring human rights cases to court. What is more, Presiding Officer, is that this bill has the potential to undermine the very parameters of our competencies here in this Parliament? It is nothing short of a disgrace. A disgrace to our history, our traditions and most importantly, it is the disgrace to the people we serve. Suffice to say, the Liberal Democrats, both in Scotland and in the rest of the UK, condemned the proposal wholeheartedly, and I am heartened to hear similar condemnations in this place. I also find it incumbent on me to point out that it is not just Westminster that the Scottish human rights are sometimes threatened. It has been revealed by research undertaken by my party that over a dozen councils in Scotland are using high-vision cameras. This equipment is linked to Chinese surveillance and facial recognition technology used to persecute the Ouija people. Their continued use risks not only potential funding and an impressive regime but endangering the human rights and civil liberties of our own citizens. This is part of a pattern of this Government being far too complacent when it comes to human rights, and they are. It has been over a year now, as we have heard several times, that this Government has been advised that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is workable into Scotland's law under the remit of devolved power. Yet our children are no closer to the protections that it is within the reach of this chamber to offer them. This Government has formed on children's rights as well. I am very grateful to the Member giving way. Does he agree with me that one of the tragedies of the UNCRC is that we are no clearer about what the discussions on the amendments that are taking place with the UK Government are? Indeed, if they were published, they may find that the influence and ideas of those outside that they have consulted before would help speed this matter up. I agree with Martin Whitfield entirely. It is surprising that a Government that in previous years has been so vehement and so passionate about the subject of children's rights should be so silent on them now. As they were, when the Government brought with much fanfare in taking us from being one of the worst countries in the world in holding children responsible for their crimes as young as eight, it took us to 12 in the age of criminal responsibility bill, just at a time when the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child lifted the international floor to 14. That was an embarrassment. We now have an age of criminal responsibility that is still lower than those human rights defenders of Russia and of China. You cannot leave the world from the back of the pack when it comes to human rights. I realise that I must close, Presiding Officer, but we need to take human rights seriously, whether that is in signing a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese company with dodgy human rights records, or when Alex Salmond refused to meet the Dalai Lama because of fear of upsetting Chinese diplomats. The slogan of international human rights day is, Stand up for your rights. Today we celebrate human rights defenders in their entirety, whether they are in Hong Kong, far away is Fahan or here in Scotland, because it is not enough simply to acknowledge the progress that we have made or indeed the progress that we still need to make. We need to fight for it, both individually and collectively, without prejudice and without borders. It is only then that we uphold the equality and the freedom that we are all born with. We will now move to the open debate. I call Joe Fitzpatrick to be followed by Annie Wells. Around four minutes please, Mr Fitzpatrick. Earlier this week, the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee heard from the Scottish Human Rights Commission regarding, among other things, the UK Government's Bill of Rights. Commission chair Ian Dutty told us that the Human Rights Act is working well in Scotland and that the commission is concerned about the regressive effects of the Bill of Rights, as well as its specific implications for Scotland, given that the 1998 act is enshrined in Scotland's laws, an area that was covered, I think, by Alex Cole-Hamilton. Such concerns, however, are not limited to the commission. This week MSPs received a briefing from Amnesty International, Just Rights Scotland, CEMVO, Making Rights Real, Together, Scottish Alliance for Children's Rights and the Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities. They have all warned that the HRA and ECHR are foundational to the devolved settlement, that proposals to scrap the HRA give scant regard to the distinct operation and administration of law in Scotland, that there is a risk of creating increased legal uncertainty relating to the shifting, diverging and more restrictive interpretation of rights, all of which together will create additional barriers for those seeking justice through the exercising of their human rights. All of that puts the Tory amendment into context. Rachel Hamilton's amendment, particularly the reference to the incorporation of UNCRC into Scots law, clearly shows the brass neck of the Scottish Conservative party. This Parliament unanimously supported the incorporation of the UNCRC, and all parties were clear that it should be as far-reaching as possible to make sure that Scottish children and young people could exercise their rights in all aspects of their lives. Tell the chamber, who are all desperate to know when it is going to be incorporated, why the timetable has not been published and why the amendments have not been shared with this Parliament and the detail about it, because we are all waiting. Thank you very much for the intervention, but if the Conservatives truly support the principles that this Parliament unanimously voted for, I challenge them to call upon their Tory colleagues at Westminster to incorporate the UNCRC into UK law, ensuring that every child across the islands has the full protection that this Parliament wants for children and young people in Scotland. It is not funny, Rachel Hamilton. It is incredibly serious, and your party has the power to take this forward rather than challenging the decisions of this Parliament. Your party could have worked with the Scottish Parliament and ensured incorporation across the islands. That really is a tale of two Governments. Contrast the actions of the UK Government and the Scottish Government's forthcoming human rights bill. I will make a bit of progress. The minister has set out that the bill will seek to incorporate into Scots law multiple international human rights treaties as far as possible within the devolved competence, including the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights alongside three further UN human rights treaties that will strengthen protections for women, disabled people and people of minority ethnic backgrounds, while also protecting LGBTI people and older people. I look forward to the introduction of the bill and its scrutiny to this Parliament. I have some progress to make if there is time—the minister says that there is time, then perhaps. Mr Patrick, you have asked Prayden, and I would say that there is a bit of time in hand this afternoon, but it is up to each member of what they do. I will take further interventions. Whatever we do in law means nothing if people cannot exercise their rights. I want to briefly touch on the equalities, human rights and civil justice committees exploration of human rights budgeting. Human rights budgeting means that decisions on how money is raised, allocated and spent are determined by the impacts that that has on people's rights. The committee has been considering the work of Spice research fellow Rob Watts, looking at the application of human rights budgeting in the year-round budget process. I am grateful for the work of Rob and others at Spice and commend their work to the chamber. In closing, the minister and Opposition spokespeople have spoken about human rights abuses abroad, and I am sure that others will, too. Unfortunately, I think that my speaking time is limited, but I share in condemnation of the egregious human rights abuses taking place across the world and support this year's call to action, though we all stand up for human rights. Mr Patrick, I remind members that we still have some time in hand across the afternoon, should members wish to make and or take interventions, which of course is a matter for them. I call Annie Wells to be followed by Karen Adam. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I welcome the opportunity to speak in today's debate on International Human Rights Day. With International Human Rights Day fast approaching this Saturday, it gives us the unique opportunity to reflect on the progress and indeed the challenges associated with human rights across the globe. As we have heard from others, this year's theme is dignity, freedom and justice for all. In looking around the world from Russia's illegal annexation in Ukraine, China's relentless pursuit of zero Covid to Iran's violent repression of protests, we are facing a multitude of challenges concerning human rights. And let's be clear, around the world human rights are being trampled upon. And this is even more stark considering it's almost 75 years since the United Nations adopted the universal declaration of human rights. We must be clear in our condemnation. Presiding Officer, the UK has been at the forefront of developing human rights laws and norms on the international stage. Indeed, we played a leading role in the creation of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and we must continue to honour the spirit of the agreement today. That's why I'm proud that we are seeing human rights abuses across the globe that the UK is making influence felt on the world stage. Through our support to Ukraine, we are standing up to Vladimir Putin and the Russian Government's illegal invasion of Ukraine. And this goes beyond words. As the UK is the second largest military donor to the UK—I'll come back in a second— as the UK is the second largest military donor to Ukraine after the United States, we are offering essential practical support to the Ukrainians to stand up to Russian aggression and the untold damage that it's already caused. And I will take the whole capture of some intervention. Does Annie Wells accept the hypocrisy of Westminster using one hand to donate money to the Ukraine efforts, but the other hand to keep asylum seekers many of whom are also fleeing wars in inhumane conditions in the Manston immigration centre where children go missing, there have been diphtheria outbreaks and people have died? Annie Wells? I would say to the members that we've got an unprecedented amount of migrants coming into the country right now and we will judge whether those have been successful or not in the past. Those people are being exploited by human traffickers and gangs as well, so we need to put in place things just now and we can judge their effectiveness in the future. And we've seen in Iran where the Government has engaged in the attempts to use violence against its own citizens. The UK Government has also sanctioned many of those responsible for authorising these unacceptable acts of repression. Presiding Officer, focusing on human rights should be a principle that unites this chamber. Yeah, absolutely. Stephen Kerr. Mr Kerr, could you please? Yes. Does Annie Wells agree with me that it is a bit despairing in a debate like this to have the Scottish National Party spend all their time talking about Tories and Westminster and all the rest of it? Why can't we just come together as Scots to say that we stand up for human rights? Annie Wells? I agree with the member. But as the Scottish Conservatives amendment to today's debate makes clear, I am disappointed too that the SNP have chosen to politicise this issue. And through their constitutional blame games, they've already managed to land a taxpayer with a bill of almost £200,000 due to legal fees related to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Bill, which the new was outside the remit of the Scottish Parliament. We on these benches will take no lessons from the SNP who in the past have been guilty of playing cynical games and politicising this issue. In conclusion, Presiding Officer, as we prepare to mark international human rights day with an eye on the 75th anniversary of the signing of the UDHR, we on these benches reaffirm our commitment to supporting the UK and our allies in defending human rights across the globe. The senseless and brutal war in Ukraine has issued a stark reminder to us all that we can never take human rights so hard fought for for granted. It is more important than ever we play a leading role in defending them. Thank you Presiding Officer. Thank you Ms Wells. I now call Karen Adam to be followed by Karen Mockant around four minutes please Ms Adam. Thank you Presiding Officer and I just have to start by saying you know consensus is great and it is fantastic to work cross-party in any kind of collaboration, particularly when it comes to human rights. But I can never do that, I can never work with anyone who would vote against the rights of LGBT people never. International human rights day marks the United Nations General Assembly adopted in 1948, as the minister has said. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a milestone document that proclaims the inalible rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being. It's really sad to see in here as well the political attacks we're accused of seeing the Tories, the UK Government, and we have to see that we do have another government that does have influence over this Parliament unfortunately but not for long. And the amount of times I've heard the words SNP and I appreciate the ad, but that is not what we're here to talk about today. The theme for this year is dignity, freedom and justice for all and unfortunately, Presiding Officer, I must recognise that for some, today is yet another day of torment, torture and the denial of those very rights that we do celebrate. It's shameful that all over the world, including in Scotland, there are those who seek to deny others those inalible rights. This motion rightly applauds those who bravely speak truth to power and at great personal cost, wherever they are in the world. In doing so, we're aware of recent examples of those who placed their lives in danger so that others may have a tomorrow full of basic human rights and protections. For example, who could not have been impacted by the activism and boldness of Iranian women? I applaud the courage and determination of the protesters like those in Iran and elsewhere who are challenging police brutality and the deep-seated misogyny of their legal systems. One of those protesters in Iran, Manaz Parkand, an Iranian lawyer and activist, she recently stated that why she does what she does and it could easily apply to what this day really represents. It is a statement as bold as it is beautiful. She said, I suffer from seeing other people's discrimination as much as those individuals suffer from it. It is our responsibility to clear the way for the recognition of the humanity of all human beings, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, beliefs, ethnicity and to respect all human beings and human rights. I consider the struggle for human rights and justice not as a duty but part of my identity. That, Presiding Officer, has to be our struggle, our journey and our identity. As the First Minister herself stated, to women in Iran fighting for basic human rights, we stand with you. Scotland should be a home for all to be, committed to delivering a shared vision where everyone can have a life of human dignity, a nation where human rights are respected and protected. I am pleased to see that the Scottish Government remains committed to supporting the rights of women and girls on an international stage, as well as at home. The Human Rights Act 1998 brought to convention rights home, enabling people to raise human rights issues in Scottish courts. That legislation also places a duty on public bodies to comply with human rights and everything they do. However, the Human Rights Act is under threat. The Tories at Westminster have proposals to replace the act with a new bill of rights that would weaken the protections in the Human Rights Act and put the UK in breach of its international obligations. In contrast, work is now well underway in Scotland to incorporate into law the human rights contained and a number of other international human rights treaties covering economic, social, cultural and environmental rights and stronger protections for the rights of women, disabled people, trans people, black and ethnic minority people, older persons and children. I agree with the Scottish Human Rights Commission that the UK Government's Bill of Rights threatens to damage Scotland's progress in developing a human rights culture and threatens to undermine yet again the UK's international reputation or at least what is left of it. In conclusion, Scotland has ambitions as a global leader in human rights with integrity and an identity rooted in compassion, empathy and understanding. I stand with all those backfilling every day for their basic human rights and I challenge us all to be better allies to those who so desperately need it. Thank you, Ms Adam. I now call on Karen Moffin to be followed by Jamie Stornan around four minutes. Please, Ms Moffin. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I join my parliamentary colleagues in marking international human rights day this coming Saturday, a day that always reminds us of just how far we have to go in order to realise the dream of universal human rights for all at home and abroad. I am pleased to talk in this issue for my party. Labour has a long and proud history of taking action to protect and defend human rights. It was a Labour Government that brought in the Human Rights Act, ratified the European Convention on the Rights of Disabled People and built human rights into the Scotland Act. We can almost all agree in this Parliament that the Tory Act on the Human Rights Act is cruel and completely regressive. I dare say that quite a few of our Tory colleagues in the chamber even think that, and it would be very welcome if more of them would stand up and say so. The narrative that somehow eradicating human rights would benefit our economy or strengthen liberty has always been completely wrong and it shocks me regularly that so many people would be willing to do that and do away with such progress. We must resist that narrative entirely and build on the hard-won rights that already exist, not degrade those that have been won through years of struggle. I join with my Scottish Labour colleagues in calling on this Government to reintroduce the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Bill, which will provide a necessary impetus to guarantee that children and young people's rights are protected in domestic legislation that cannot be done away with so easily. That would be a progressive and promising use of this Parliament's time and provide a bedrock for future developments that can help those who need it most. The Scottish Human Rights Commission published a report in November with a series of recommendations for the Scottish Government on its compliance with the human rights law. We only have a short amount of time to debate that, but I would like to ask the Government to respond to the points on poverty. The report points out that the Scottish Government is still not on track to meet Scotland's child poverty targets. Food and fuel poverty persists in Scottish research highlights that a household is made homeless every 19 minutes, many being families with children. I think that the minister will agree with me if we have one move to make in this Parliament is to meet our targets on child poverty. I would like to take a moment to reflect on how easily human rights are disregarded when proper scrutiny and accountability do not take place and call on all of us to remain vigilant in protecting those principles. We can see right now that the World Cup is going on in Qatar, which is allowing a regime that has no time for the concerns of workers, women and many others, while having a very cavalier attitude to human life has been flaunted on the world stage. All the while, those who have died have been forgotten. If such countries are rewarded with dismissing human rights, what message does that really send to others? We must always think about those things, of course. Further to the member's point, which I agree with 100 per cent, I wonder if the member would also share my dismay at FIFA's dereognition of the Afghan women's team when they were in Australia, who have left and FIFA, at the request of the Government, have dereognised the team. Thank you very much for that intervention. I am glad that you made the intervention in a similar vein. Only four years ago, the same competition went to Russia, where LGBT plus people are third-class citizens. We were looking the other way, as Putin's actions are that time in Ukraine. We can all see where that led. I am sure, as we approach international human rights day, that many of us will be remembering those who have fought and lost their lives. Deputy Presiding Officer, human rights are not a solution on their own, but they certainly provide a foundation for lasting peace and decency. I trust that we will all remember that in the difficult years ahead. I now call James Dornan, who is joining us remotely, to be followed by Maggie Chapman. It is a privilege to speak in today's debate to recognise international human rights day. Ever since the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights back in 1948, this milestone recognition of the unalienable universal rights of human beings should be afforded has been instrumental in promoting, enhancing and evolving our understanding of these rights across the globe. However, as we approach its 75th anniversary, it is perhaps apt to be highlight the words of the High Commission of Balker Turk when he speaks of today's situation and the very real need to regain the universality of human rights, the indivisibility of human rights and that we need to find a new energy that motivates young people around the world. A universality which was optimistically hoped for in the aftermath of World War II and the human rights abuses which had been witnessed across the globe, but today we see these abuses committed again from the theatre of war in Ukraine to the continuing abuses being committed in Palestine and beyond. So, while it is true to say that a lot has been achieved, it is also true to say that if we do not renew our commitment to universal human rights and speak out against abuses, these achievements can be lost. We should all be concerned about this. We should all condemn abuses wherever they take place and we should never stand up for one and not another. Abuses abuse wherever, whenever, by whoever. If we lose sight of this, we lose sight of the very founding principles the declaration was intended to promote. That is why, in my view, this year's theme is a particular relevance, dignity, freedom and justice for all, focus on universal declaration of human rights legacy, relevance and activism. As I have said since its inception, it has much to be proud of and is just as if not more relevant than ever. Having as a High Commission notes been under sustained assault in recent years from pandemics, conflicts, exploding inequality to a morally bankrupt global financial system and the ravages of climate change. These challenges highlight the renewed need for activism and is why I, too, commend the work of human rights defenders in all nations and territories. Their work and title's commitment to defending human rights is central to the fight we face at present as we look to the challenges we face in the future. Recognising this work, I was proud to welcome the Government's Scottish Human Rights Defender Fellowship established in 2018 to provide rest and respite from daily dangers and threats inherent in their work, an opportunity for study, training and research to support their human rights work. Such initiatives are essential to supporting and encouraging activism in this field and perhaps the Minister can take the opportunity to update us on this initiative alongside providing further information of other initiatives that the Government may consider to support and encourage activism. May I suggest that education, as always, is the key? I would like to see more work being done to promote human rights education in schools. For a while, a lot has been done, many studies still show that there continues to be further opportunities to mainstream human rights awareness beginning in the early years through primary and secondary schooling and beyond. Scotland is a proud history in defending and upholding human rights and by helping our children to understand them from an early age, we create the defenders of the future. Finally, I think everyone here today would say they are committed to human rights and it would defend them if asked and that is why, regardless of political party, as we have heard already from across the chamber, we as a Parliament should oppose the UK Government's proposed Bill of Rights, which will weaken not strength in human rights. Attacking human rights is an attack on everyone and we need to defend against it as one by supporting today's motion. Thank you, Mr Dornan. I now call Maggie Chapman to be followed by Martin Whitfield around four minutes, please, Ms Chapman. Saturday 10 December is International Human Rights Day and it also marks the end of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. I would like to thank colleagues across the chamber and all those individuals and organisations across Scotland for their contributions in highlighting the importance of the 16 days and the work that we must still do. I would also like to acknowledge the member's business debate that some of us had contributed to earlier today. How will we survive, stepped to preventing destitution in the asylum system? I thank Bob Doris for giving us the chance to consider how we might better enable asylum seekers to realise their rights. No one is illegal. Human Rights Day is celebrated every year on 10 December, the day upon which, in 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yes, as many in this chamber would like to remind us, the UK indeed did play its part. One of the declarations drafting committee was Charles Dukes, socialist, trade unionist and imprisoned First World War conscientious objector. 74 years later, when this UK Tory Government has so dishonoured that tradition, so forgotten the basic meanings of universal, of human and of rights, we would do well to look seriously at the declaration and at why it was and still is so absolutely critical. The context, of course, was a world broken by war, by suffering, by loss and, worst of all, as the preamble sets out by the silent horrors brought about by ideologies of, and I quote, disregard and contempt for human rights. For without recognising that we are all human, that we all share the inherent dignity, equality and inalienable rights of which the drafters wrote, we have no hope, any of us, of achieving real freedom, true justice or deep-rooted peace. These human rights, our human rights, were so important that even the member states of the United Nations, representatives of governments far from radical, acknowledged that, without human rights protection, people would be, and again I quote, compelled to have recourse as a last resort to rebellion against tyranny and oppression. Those who complain that human rights or indeed this debate are being politicised have once again completely missed the point. Human rights are always political because they are always there to protect the weak from the strong, the poor from the rich, the excluded from the comfortable and complacent. If politics is about anything it is about power and human rights seek to redress imbalances of power, to mitigate unequal distribution of resources, to lift up the oppressed, to provide dignity, freedom and justice to all. The new Tory idea of rights has been shamelessly paraded in their ludicrously named Bill of Rights Bill, or more accurately described, I think, as the rights removal bill. According to this conception, rights aren't really rights at all. They are rewards for being on the right side, rewards for being adult, for being healthy, for being British, for being cisgendered, for being fortunate enough not to have experienced persecution or forced migration or disability or mental illness or homelessness or imprisonment. Rights are the icing on the cake for those who already have the cake. In fact, it's worse than that. In the looking glass world of Tory ideology, privilege itself is renamed in the language of rights. The privilege of owning another person's home, of having a loud media voice, of indulgence in gender gatekeeping, of time and money to travel. Somehow, those are placed in the scales against real fundamental rights to our home, to freedom from persecution, to a private and family life, to join a trade union, to strike, to protest. For the rights we stand for are not just the comfortable ones, the ones that do not impinge on our prejudices, on our inherited assumptions, on our convenience. Next year will be the 75th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights. I want to stand here then, celebrating the demise of the Tory's shameful rights removal bill, welcoming our further embedding and extending of human rights in Scotland, especially for children, and looking ahead to the next challenges. For human rights, our universal, for all of us as humans, until we make that real here and everywhere, our work must continue. Thank you. Thank you, Ms Chapman. I now call Martin Quickfield to be followed by Paul McLean in around four minutes please, Mr Quickfield. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and it is, as always, a pleasure to follow Maggie Chapman and her powerful speech. The fact that she reminded us that, of course, this Saturday brings to the end the 16 days of action that so many people across this chamber today were in this chamber at the start. The 10th of December, the 75th anniversary, dignity, freedom and justice for all, I thank the Minister for quoting Volker Turk, because in the last section about people finding a new energy that motivates young people around the world, I took as Volker pointing to the fact that our young people have that energy and it's actually for the rest of us to find similar levels of energy to fight for human rights wherever they are at risk and wherever they are breached. I would like to take the short time that I have to discuss the UNCRC and I make no apology to that. I thank Rachel Hamilton for drawing attention to the actual wording of the judgment from the Supreme Court, because it saves me two minutes of having to revisit that. It allows me the opportunity to take us back 18 months to 16 March 2021 when it was voted in this chamber to bring it in. Then, as we've heard on 6 October 2021, when the Supreme Court knocked back the bill for it exceeding the powers here in the Scottish Court. What I want to do is draw attention to some events that have happened since then. I want to talk about a meeting of the Embedding and Public Services guidance subgroup on 9 August 2022, when they were told that the first report under the UNCRC bill, not ACT, will be due as soon as is practical after 31 March 2023. People are going to be expected to report on a bill, spend funds creating that report, even though they don't have the statutory authority to do it, by 31 March 2021. Let's move to 25 August 2022, when the UNCRC strategic implementation board minutes show that the bill will be brought back to and passed by Parliament by the end of this calendar year. Alex Cole-Hamilton I'm very grateful to Martin Whitfield for giving way. He brings to Parliament a very important point. He mentioned, at the top of his excellent remarks, the fact that young people have the energy to drive towards their rights. Does he agree with me that, in the evidence, the heel dragging of this Government and not bringing this bill back to Parliament, it does not replicate the energy held by our young people, nor does it in the age of criminal responsibility? I'm very grateful for that intervention. Of course, it lacks the enthusiasm, it lacks the energy, it lacks the passion of our young people, but it does reflect the anger that young people feel outside of this place about the fact that the UNCRC has not come back here. So, on 25 August, the implementation board was told that this will be dependent on amendments being prepared, no significant concerns being raised by the UK Government, and parliamentary process itself, the parliamentary process being, of course, this place. On 27 September, the strategic implementation board, we are still on track to have reconsidered the bill passed before the end of the calendar year, but that will depend on whether the relevant committees would like to schedule time to scrutinise the amendments. The UNCRC strategic was also told that stakeholder engagement on the proposed fixes had taken place and were completed between 25 May and 11 June. The reason that I raised these is because I would like to ask the Minister where are we with this bill. Is it correct that there are amendments sitting with the UK Government that the Scottish Government, not the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Government is waiting to hear back from and have the Scottish Government set a timetable for the UK Government to respond? Because I see in these minutes, I see in discussions where the Scottish Government is meeting with very important stakeholders in respect of this, those stakeholders who represent our young people for whom the UNCRC was so heralded and rightly needs to come on to the statute book. The Parliament seems to be getting blamed because its committees won't find time. It's coming back before, but I will from it since I have time, Deputy Presiding Officer. Richard Hamilton. On what you're trying to find out here, because until the motions and amendments are actually lodged, the committee cannot scrutinise it and therefore the committee is being told that the motions and the amendments are not being lodged. So it's the Government that are holding this up and not the committees? I'm very grateful for that intervention and you confirm what I feared, but what I am concerned about is that in meetings with stakeholders outside of this chamber there is discussion about this Parliament and the committees holding this up. Instead of what I believe to be the case, a discussion between the Scottish Government with respect, Mr Cook, can I just pause you into it? The Scottish Government and the UK Government appear to be a loggerheads over something, which is why my earlier intervention requesting sight of those draft amendments so that they can be looked at would speed through these events, because we are now in December 2022. We are two sitting weeks away from the end of this year. My understanding, and I am apt to be corrected by the Minister, that there was an intention in October to bring the timetabling motion back, but because of rightful events following the death of Her Majesty, it was rightly postponed. If that is the case, this must be ready to go. It should be to go, and I can think of no better day than I will give you till obviously the 12th or 13th, because we will miss the 10th of December, that on the 75th anniversary of the human rights day, founded at the end of that most appalling war, we can see the UNCRC come back to this chamber with a timetable. I am very grateful for your patience, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you, Mr Witfield. I now call Paul McLeanon, who will be the last speaker in the open debate around four minutes. Please listen, Mr McLeanon. I thank the Scottish Government for bringing forward this debate this afternoon. As we have all said, the human rights day is observed every year on the 10th of December, the day the UN General Assembly adopted in 1948 the universal declaration of human rights. The UNCRC was, and still is, a milestone document that proclaims the rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being, regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national, social origin, property, birth or other status. As has been mentioned before, the 2022 theme is about dignity, freedom and justice. For all, the 75th anniversary of the universal declarations act will be celebrated over the weekend. In the decade since the adoption of the UNCRC, human rights have become more recognised and more guaranteed across the globe, but that has been challenged all over the world and in the United Kingdom. The Scottish Human Rights Commission sent a briefing for this debate today, and that is what they told us. They consider the United Kingdom's Bill of Rights and threatens to damage Scotland's progress in developing a human rights culture by undermining that the human convention on human rights protection is available under the Human Rights Act and the Scotland Act and settles Scottish devolution and introduces confusion and uncertainty for Scotland's public authorities. They also consider the Bill of Rights and its supporting publications failed to acknowledge the complex implications of the proposed measures for Scotland. They also state that the UK Bill of Rights threatens the UK's international reputation. Indeed, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that UK risks going back on long-standing human rights commitments. They also comment that their overall objectives as set out by the UK Government are at odds with the UK's international obligations and domestic support for the Human Rights Act, particularly in Scotland. I want to turn to the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Parliament has acknowledged the requirement to embed human rights across its work. In 2018, the Equalities and Human Rights Committee of the Scottish Parliament set a human rights roadmap for the Scottish Parliament. Parliament has a vital role to play and ensuring that the Scottish Government and other public bodies are upholding the protections of the European Convention and other international human rights standards. Work is now well underway in Scotland to incorporate into law the human rights contained in a number of international human rights treaties covering economic, social, cultural and environment rights and stronger protections for the rights of women, disabled people, black and ethnic minorities, older persons and children. There has been considerable progress in the development of human rights culture in Scotland. The Human Rights Act and the Scotland Act have played a key role in that progress. If I've got time to sign on for something. There's a very noble list of different groups in all of their rights. Does he agree with what Rachel Hamilton said and what Martin Whitfield just said about the need for his Government to bring forward the amendments that have been discussed so that we can get on with incorporating UN charter on the rights of children? Does he agree with my colleagues on that? That's an opening speech, and I'm sure that I'll reference that in the closing speech. The commission strongly encourages Parliament to support the human rights of all people in Scotland and to ensure that access to justice and human rights-based approaches are strengthened rather than weakened. I, along with other colleagues of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee attended human rights training in the summer. That was offered by the Scottish Human Rights Commission. I and my colleagues found this very helpful and it helped us to focus on the human rights approach to everything that we do. I asked in that regard if human rights training for Parliamentarians could be and should be embedded as a matter, of course, especially in the induction of new MSPs. I'm going to ask the minister on some matter if she considers supporting that idea. I know that that would probably need to go through either the Sign of the Year, or the Standard Procedures and Public Appointments Committee to recommend that they take steps in that regard. The training was very, very helpful and it's allowed me and I know other colleagues to look at us in the work in the committee in a different tact. The previous Equality and Human Rights Committee produced a report in a 2018 entitled Getting Rights Right, Human Rights and the Scottish Parliament. One key recommendation regarding international human rights reviews stated that we ask Scottish Parliament committees assisted by the Scottish Parliament research service to utilise the universal product review recommendations in Scottish Government's timetable for action to inform their scrutiny work. Perhaps the minister can also comment on that also. Presiding Officer, in conclusion, the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that convention rights are made protected from Westminster's regressive proposals for a UK Bill of Rights, ensuring that Scotland has a strong and enduring commitment to securing democracy, the rule of law and human rights across Scotland in the world. Thank you. We now move to closing speeches and I call on Foisal Choudry. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is a pleasure to close this debate for the Scottish Labour. There has been much said in the debate that we on these benches can agree with. December 10 is, of course, the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations. My colleague Pam Duncan Glancy has already highlighted the theme of dignity, freedom and justice for all and how those are currently threatened here. Much has already been said about human rights and several members, including Alex Cole-Hamilton and Karen Adam, have saluted their defenders. I would like to use my time to focus on the context of those rights. Firstly, the universal nature of them, the Universal Declaration was the first major attempt at ensuring human rights across the globe. It builds upon the rights in the UN chatter to detail the rights every human being should be able to accept. It was the beginning of international human rights law as we know it today. We all know that the development and the recognition of international law has not been straightforward path. But in the aftermath of the Second World War, it was a revolutionary act. It was an attempt to ensure that the crimes that had been committed in the preceding decade would never be repeated. But while we mark the beginning of this era of international law and universal right, I fear we are slip-walking into the end of it. And it pains me to see the UK Government playing its part in this. It pains me to see the disregard from the international law since Brexit has been clear for me for all to see. Ministers acknowledging that their legislation would break international law in a specific and limited way. An essential threat to the Human Rights Act and the Northern Ireland protocol bill threatening to tear up an international treaty. As the Scottish Refugee Council told the cross-party group on Europe earlier this year, a Government which seems to be trying to ensure the Refugee Convention has no effect. What conclusion are we supposed to draw from a Government that behaves in this way? If not that, they have a dismissive attitude to international law. I fear that they do not realise the signals that they are sending to the rest of the world. Stephen Kerr, I am grateful for my friend for giving the reality is that the UK is a shining light in relation to those matters. For example, last year, we had a net migration figure in excess of half a million because of the generosity of the peoples of these islands in welcoming people from Hong Kong who are in the face of a brutal, repressive Chinese regime or the people from Ukraine who are coming here with open arms to greet them and to paint the United Kingdom as a repressor of the rights of refugees that I am afraid is a travesty. What is the chow tree? I think that this is a debate for another day, but I think that, to me, we need to treat everyone equally. I think that racial Hamilton highlighted some of the human rights abuses around the world, but when even the British Government starts ignoring international law, that it does not like when it starts thinking the treaties and saying that some rights are more universal than others. What example does it set? The Tories are eroding our ability to be taken seriously. So, Presiding Officer, I turn back to the motion that Scottish Labour agrees with the comments on the Rights and Human Rights Act and Scotland Act 1998. As my colleague noted, those are good-lover pieces of legislation, but we also encourage the Scottish Government to bring back to the Parliament its bill on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, so that those rights can be inshared in Scottish legislation as well. I am pleased to be able to close this debate on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives. Every year, appalling human rights violations take place around the world. Those dreadful acts remind us of the importance of setting out a firm stand in favour of human rights. Let me commend colleagues across the chamber for making a number of thoughtful and important contributions. I would like to take a moment to mention some of those. Christina McKelvie paid special tributes to all the human rights defenders around the world, which we must not forget all the great work that they are doing. My colleagues Rachel Hamilton and Annie Wells spoke about the three places in which we all know that human rights are under threat—China, Ukraine and Iran. Pam Duncan Glancy highlighted that the incorporation of laws alone is not enough, and that there has to be a human rights base to policy-making and budget setting. Alex Cole-Hamilton and Carol McCann reminded us that, while we acknowledge that so much has been done on human rights, so much more has to be done. It is very interesting how the member, Joe Fitzpatrick, talks about brass nex. Maybe the member can help to push the Scottish Government to announce some key dates on the UNCRC bill that everybody is so desperately waiting for and that basically everybody today has acknowledged. I would like to carry on, so I have just started. Karen Adams rightly applauded the courage of the Iranian women. Martin Whitfield spoke very passionately about the UNCRC bill, highlighting key dates and how can organisations be expected to report on a bill by 31 March 2023? However, there is no timeline to when the Scottish Government intends to lodge a motion and publish its amendments. Of course, Rachel Hamilton and Annie Wells both spoke about Putin's atrocious crimes during the war in Ukraine. I am proud that the United Kingdom has been the second-largest donor to Ukraine, which committed £2.3 billion to the cause in 2020-22. As a country, that has been at the forefront of protecting human rights around the world. It is only appropriate that the United Kingdom has led the way in Europe in opposing Putin's barbaric war. I am still getting on, Mr Sorry, I will not have enough time. Our amendment today talks about children's rights and about the Scottish Government's UNCRC bill. The United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child is said to be the most complete statement of children's rights ever produced. It is also the most widely ratified international treaty in history. When the Scottish Government introduced the UNCRC incorporation bill in the previous session of Parliament, it was received and supported from all parties that was mentioned today. However, it was clear that there were potential legal issues with the bill. Last October, the Supreme Court declared that the UNCRC bill exceeded the competence of the Scottish Parliament. The SNP deliberately drafted the bill that way. It used children's rights to play nationalist games. Just as today, it is using human rights to provoke another grievance with the United Kingdom Government. It was a cheap and low attack without any substance behind it. Last year, the Deputy First Minister stated that his Government was absolutely committed to implementing the legislation at the earliest possible opportunity after addressing the remedies that are necessary. However, in last year's debate on human rights day, I raised that Parliament still had no idea of timescales for the bill's reconsideration stage. A whole year has passed now and the bill still has not returned to Parliament. The Scottish Human Rights Commission, which I was able to ask about this issue earlier this week in the committee, has said that clarity is needed from the Government on this issue. Once again, we are calling on the SNP Government to treat the children's rights bill like the priority it should be and return it to Parliament as soon as possible, in concluding, Presiding Officer. This Parliament has a moral obligation to continue working to the fullest of its powers to advance human rights. We cannot be stood here again in a year's time still waiting for the SNP to act on children's rights. The Parliament must stop seeking grievance with the UK at every turn and focus on what really matters, passing the children's rights bill. We cannot just highlight examples abroad. We must do what we can here on our doorstep to promote human rights. I urge MSPs to support the amendment in Rachael Hamilton's name. I call on Christina McKelvie to wind up up to 5 p.m., minister. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I am delighted to conclude today's debate, and I thank all members for their contributions. When it was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights set out to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights in the dignity and the worth of the human persons. We have heard today from many members, including a great speech from Faisal Chowdhury, that the Scottish Parliament shares those fundamental principles and reaffirms its commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I would like to pick up many points about the UNCRC. I recognise across the chamber colleagues' passion and commitment to the UNCRC, but the Scottish Government did not deliberately bring forward a UNCRC bill outwith the competence. The Parliament, all of it, its members and its Presiding Officer at the time, agreed that the bill was within competence. It is a complex issue. It involves a devolution settlement. It involves a detailed complex Supreme Court judgment. We want to incorporate as far as possible within legislative competence. We want to do that as soon as possible, but we must minimise the risk of further reference to the Supreme Court. We make no apology for engaging with the UK Government on that, and we make no apology for taking time over main June with young people who campaigned to passionately, so passionately to bring this about. We have taken the time to hear their voices, but we do anticipate that engagement will conclude in the near future. Jo Fitzpatrick is absolutely correct. He clearly demonstrated the brass neck of the Tories in this place, and I too would challenge them to incorporate UNCRC rights across the UK and maybe abolish the two child cap and the rape clause while they are at it before they bring their crocodile tears to this Parliament. Many MSPs highlighted Russia's illegal war of aggression in Ukraine and the appalling war crimes and atrocities that it has committed. We do stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. Co-Cab Stewart called out again the Tories and the UK Government's hypocrisy, because safe refugees were really being exploited by traffickers. Give them a safe and legal route to come to this country instead of having to take a route through traffickers. And since the conflict began and over 21,800 people have arrived in the UK, we are proud to be able to support so many people who have fled war and are appalled that there is any need to. But also appalled, as Maggie Chapman and others have said, about the UK Government's attitude to refugees. If Tories in this place want to show any integrity, they should sort out the subject of the disgraceful no-recourse-to-public-funds policy. We are also committed to playing our part in welcoming and supporting people from Afghanistan. I have had the honour of meeting Mursal Nuri, who fled Afghanistan last August and who campaigned in Afghanistan and now in Scotland for women and girls across to access to education and elected office. Last month, at Mursal's former school in Afghanistan, 46 of her classmates were killed by a suicide bomber. Mursal's campaigning acts as a vital reminder to all of us of the very real threats that face women and girls in Afghanistan. In Khan Adam and others, I joined with them in paying tribute to Massa Amini, to the 58 children and to the many hundreds of other victims of the latest waves of repression in Iran. Wearing the hijab should be a matter of personal choice. We applaud the courage and determination of protesters who are challenging police brutality and the deep-seated misogyny of laws such as the one requiring women to wear a hijab. Alex Cole-Hamilton, Carol Morgan and Joe Fitzpatrick also picked up on the concerned reports around deaths of migrant workers and the treatment of LGBTI people in Qatar. Human Rights Watch described the World Cup as exciting, lucrative and deadly. The Scottish Government condemns human rights abuses wherever they occur, and we stand in solidarity with those facing discrimination and persecution. We also share Joe Fitzpatrick and Carol Morgan's condemnation of the dereognition of the Afghan women's football team. It is my tiny mark of defiance that I have been wearing in my rainbow laces at the beginning of the World Cup, and it will be on me till the end of the World Cup, because small acts of defiance can show solidarity to the people around the world. Such abuses remind us just how fragile the post-1945 international order remains and how real the threat to human rights in global peace is. There is ample evidence, including the UN High Commissioner, for Human Rights, that China has committed gross violations of human rights in Xinjiang. We must dedicate ourselves to meeting the highest of human rights standards, and we must continue to strive for equality and human rights right here in Scotland and the UK. As Joe Fitzpatrick has said, and others have said, we have heard from civil society organisations on their concerns about the bill of removing rights. I have heard all those calls. That is why we must oppose the UK Government's regulatory race to the bottom and its regressive policies, which seek to remove our rights and threats, some of the most vulnerable in our society. Let's talk about the disgraceful points made by Scottish Tories in this place, because the following is who they are, and who they are is the thing that we must reject. The UK Home Secretary's dream of seeing the front pages of the telegraph with a plane taken off to Rwanda, her dream is a nightmare for the people at grave risk of torture and death. It must be clear that this Parliament does not share the justice secretary's desire to destroy the human rights act and replace it with a dangerous and ill-conceived Bill of Rights. This Scottish Government will continue to robustly oppose all attacks on the human rights act. As members of this Parliament, we have made that very clear that there must be no changes to the human rights act without explicit consent. James Norman spoke about human rights defenders, and he paid tribute to young people and what we should be doing in education. Members in this place should go and look at together's human rights defenders, who are providing the lived experience of young people and the work that we are doing for our human rights bill coming forward in Scotland soon. The ambition of the Scottish Government is to be a good global leader, one that supports democracy, the rule of law and human rights. We are demonstrating our leadership through the introduction of our human rights bill. The next key milestone will be a public consultation and proposals next year. I was delighted to hear from Paul MacLennan on the continued embedding of human rights across this Parliament and its committees, and as the convener of the report he referenced, I would be very happy to support his call for all members in this place to take part in that human rights training. In conclusion, so much is achieved for human rights around the world by brave individuals who are prepared to stand up for the principle set out in the UN declaration for human rights. For our part, the Scottish Government will continue to do everything it can to uphold those values, to make rights real for the people in Scotland and to stand up for human rights wherever they are under threat. That concludes the debate on international human rights days. It is now time to move on to the next item of business. There are three questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first is that amendment 7133.2, in the name of Rachel Hamilton, which seeks to amend motion 7133, in the name of Christina McKelvie, on international human rights days, be agreed. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we will move to a vote, and there will be a brief pause to allow members to access the digital voting system.