By Henry Ferguson
Dear co-signatory,
Well, we’re now 274 co-signatories plus the 4 original RSS signatories – thanks again for your support !
After useful discussions with parliament’s Public Petitions administrative team, on 31st October we filed a second Petition request which, once the team approves, will be forwarded to the Scottish Government for a response and then to the CPPPC committee for consideration and approval.
Our second request clearly states what we want MSPs to do and hopefully meets the petition team’s requirements for clarity. Our first request, filed on 17th August, was headlined:
“Recognise Direct Democracy (DD) by enacting the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights.”
Our updated request (copy attached) is headlined:
“Implement the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR) in Scottish legislation.”
We’ve insisted that Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998 permits implementation of ICCPR since it’s not a reserved matter, and the team haven’t refuted our position.
In the e-mail which accompanied our request, we’ve pointed out that ICCPR Art 1 lists Self-Determination as being the first Human Right and we’ve emphasised Art 1.3 as follows:
“The States Parties to the present Covenant (i.e. the UK) ….. shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.”
Faced with long-standing government inaction, the updated request is what the Scottish Human Rights Commission and the UN Human Rights Committee have asked for in reports published earlier this year. The Petition will give the Scottish People the chance to demonstrate that public opinion is aligned with these two authoritative bodies.
The updated petition and the accompanying e-mail were addressed to our contact in the CPPPC team and copied to: the First Minister John Swinney, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, SNP Deputy Leader Keith Brown, Greens Co-Leaders Lorna Slater & Patrick Harvie, the five members of the Public Petitions Committee (CPPPC) - Jackson Carlaw (Convener) & Maurice Golden (both Conservative), Foysol Choudhury (Labour), David Torrance (Deputy Convener) & Fergus Ewing (both SNP) and my own Constituency MSP Tom Arthur (SNP). We also copied the Policy & International Officer, the Chief Executive Officer and the Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission.
Our website is not yet ready for full roll-out so we’re accepting signatures to the FM letter until mid-November when we’ll be able to support Direct Democracy campaigning and fund-raising. In the meantime, please continue to share the FM letter widely with family, friends and colleagues. FYI we expect to shortly take steps to help you send personalised e-mails to your own MSPs.
(s) Henry Ferguson
Comments