WHAT POWERS DO WE HAVE?

David Younger
Jul 3
4 min read

Clearly, it appears, Jackson Carlaw, convener of the CPPPC would rather we had none. His attempt to have the petition thrown out at its first presentation was thwarted by Fergus Ewing and Maurice Golden. But the petition's progress is still not safe and RSS have identified serious deficiencies in the information presented to the public.

Today, we hand delivered a letter to Mr Carlaw and the 4 other CPPPC members, with a copy to Angus Robertson, the minister for constitution. We asked them to (i)summon Angus Robertson to appear before the committeeto finally answer our questions and (ii) request the Parliamentary research unit to issue aFact Sheet on the competency of MSPs to enact the ICCPR. We also pointed out the democratic deficiencies we’ve encountered in bringing this petition to the public’s attention and suggested how they may be corrected.

Here is the letter:

Mr. Jackson Carlaw MSP, Convener 1st July, 2025Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee (CPPPC)The Scottish ParliamentEdinburgh EH99 1SP

Dear Mr. Carlaw,

I’m writing to you, as Convener of CPPPC, with respect to my ongoing Petition PE2135 to implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in Scottish legislation. As of today, 6,954 people have signed the petition.

We’ve asked your committee (PE2135/E) to urgently request (i) the Parliamentary research group, SPICe, to prepare a Fact Sheet on the power of MSPs to implement ICCPR and (ii) the Cabinet Secretary CEAC, Mr Angus Robertson MSP, to respond in person to certain specific questions. Once these tasks are complete, your committee will be able to close its initial consideration of PE2135.

I want to congratulate both the Parliament and the CPPPC for giving the petition individual attention and not subjecting it to unreasonable signature requirements before considering it for action. However, I suggest there’s still room for improvement in the democratic process:

1. PE2135 was watered down

Although the Scotland Act 1998 (Section 30 (1) and Schedule 5 (7.1)) empowers the Scottish Parliament to fully implement ICCPR, the Admin. team would not allow our petition to go ahead on this basis. Our petition had to be watered down so that it applies only to legislation related to devolved matters although ICCPR, an international human rights treaty covered by Schedule 5, is not reserved. This was an act of censorship, contrary to the Parliament’s declared ambition that Scotland should be a world human rights leader, and the CPPPC administrative services should be instructed accordingly.

2. Information provided to CPPPC was misleading and incomplete

Someone, somewhere, submitted misleading and incomplete briefing information to the CPPPC prior to the April 2^nd 2025 meeting which first considered PE2135. I had to spend a lot of time and effort convincing the Admin. team that an amended Official Report was necessary, and this was finally accepted as petitioner submission PE2135/D. The fact remains, however, that the briefing information in the Official Report of the 2^nd April meeting - which I watched you read out to the committee and which remains the official record of the meeting - is misleading and incomplete.

In particular, you made no reference to the 2024 reports of the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) and the UN Human Rights Committee - both recommending full ICCPR implementation - and a relevant 2022 speech by the first Chair of SHRC. Quality control over important briefing information prepared for the CPPPC needs to be overhauled.

3. The Cabinet Secretary CEAC hasn’t replied to the RSS questions- and still hasn’t replied to my personal letters

It is imperative that the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture (CAEC), appear in person before the committee. As we point out (PE2135/E), the Cabinet Secretary failed to respond (PE2135/C) to our detailed questions (PE2135/B) as requested by Mr Fergus Ewing MSP during the 2^nd April meeting. This is unacceptable to me, to my RSS National Committee colleagues and to our 6,954 co-signatories. Apart from the Scottish Administration’s failure to respect the democratic process, we’re extremely concerned that the Ministerial Code may have been systematically violated for many years.

Further, to ensure my submissions to CPPPC were as complete as possible, I wrote two personal letters to Angus Robertson but received no reply to case-handling references 202500449960 (28^th January), 202500451442 (5th February) and 202500466354 (16^th May).

In the absence of any reply, I can only conclude that Mr Robertson agrees with me and my RSS colleagues that, in accordance with the Scotland Act 1998 and the Referendums (Scotland) Act 2020 respectively, Parliament has the power to (i) fully implement ICCPR, and (ii) call a popular referendum to approve the proposed Act concerned.

Thank you for the work you’re doing leading the CPPPC.

On behalf of Respect Scottish Sovereignty (RSS),

Henry B. Ferguson, Petitioner

CC: CPPPC Committee:

Mr. Foysol Choudhury MSP

Mr. Fergus Ewing MSP

Mr. Maurice Golden MSP

Mr. David Torrance MSP

Cabinet Secretary CEAC

Citizen Participation & Public Petitions Admin.

Scottish Human Rights Commission

Prof. Alan Miller