It is a pleasure to speak on this group of amendments. I will speak not about the Sewel convention, because that clause should be put right in a relatively straightforward way by the Secretary of State, but about the implications for the Human Rights Act 1998 of what we are considering.
New clause 5 would ensure that, were the Human Rights Act abolished, renewed, revived or changed by this place in whatever shape or form, the Scottish Parliament would be able to maintain the Act, as it would like to do. That is a principle of devolution that I would like to be applied to England, Wales and Northern Ireland within an overarching federal settlement, so that we can be sure that fundamental human rights are close to the people and cannot be dispensed with on the whim of a federal Parliament.
Whenever I talk about these things, people say, “Here we go again—dry constitutionalism,” so I want to say a little about this dry constitutionalism. This is all about defending the victims of crime, those who have disabilities, women who are facing sexual and domestic violence, and the victims of child trafficking. It is about fundamental human rights.
The rights that are listed were not written by some recent bureaucrat in the Commission in Brussels, but by an eminent group of Conservatives led by David Maxwell Fyfe, a former Conservative Home Secretary and, I think, a boss of the intelligence services, so no woolly liberal radical he. Having been affected by the appalling suffering of the second world war, he pulled together the European convention on human rights. I cannot commend him highly enough. It was not drawn up by Mr Delors or the current President of the European Commission, but was drawn up in response to the plight of refugees and the torture and inhumanity of the second world war. David Maxwell Fyfe and a number of British civil servants drafted these human rights, which have been adopted across the European Union. The rights also arose out of the United Nations charter.
The rights that are listed include things that we take for granted: the right to life, liberty and security of person; the right to a fair trial; protection from torture
and ill treatment; freedom of thought, conscience, religion, speech and assembly; the right to marry; the right to free elections; the right to fair access to the country’s education system; and the right not to be discriminated against.
There are many arguments about how the convention is enforced and used across the European Union, and about our interaction with the continental courts system. Is it perfect? Of course it is not. However, we should not dispense easily with something that has had a good 60 or 65 years’ service, and that has allowed people in this country who were struggling for their rights to pursue their cases, defeat the domestic courts and have things overturned in their favour. I do not want to use this just as a prelude to the arguments we will have on human rights later, but I will certainly do my best, if Mr Crausby is not listening too intently, to make sure we have a proper debate.
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The sharp end of the debate on the Bill concerns the role of the Scottish Parliament. It just so happens that the guardians of human rights in Scotland are the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament, which is why clause 2 is a first skirmish in the battle to ensure that the Human Rights Act, in its form of maintaining the European convention on human rights, is central to what we do as Members of Parliament, regardless of party. Those rights are not important to those who are on top or in the majority. They are important to those who are losing. They are important to those who are suffering. They are important to people when arbitrary power is being used against them. This is the first little shot being fired. Perhaps it is like the part of the battle in the film “Zulu” when the first scouts encounter each other, but it is certainly really important.
I say to Scottish colleagues from all parties that the Scotland Bill is not just about Scotland. Obviously it is central, but it is not just about that. It reflects on every nation. It reflects on our values and what we stand for as a Parliament. I would therefore argue very strongly that my Scottish colleagues, even if they have some political reason not to want this as it stands, should, for the benefit of those who need the defence of the European convention on human rights, please stand up on this occasion not only for the Scottish people, vital as that is, but for the rest of the people in the Union who depend on these rights. This is an issue we will return to.