Issue 45 May 2009 - Introduction from the Editor, 10 Years of Devolution: The Human Rights Balance Sheet

This Issue is being published at a time of much public discussion about the experience of 10 years of devolution. What then may be a snapshot of the human rights balance sheet and does it offer some pointers towards the agenda of the next 10 years?

Of course, it is not possible to approach this in isolation from developments which are external to Scotland, but which impact significantly upon us all.

So I am pleased in this Issue to include Laura Paton's preview of the significance of the June visit of Justice Albie Sachs of the South African Constitutional Court. Other than the address he is to give on the judgment relating to the interests and rights of children in the sentencing process relating to adults he will also, the following day, be elaborating on judicial approaches to the protection of human dignity. This will be on the occasion of the Scottish Human Rights Commission hosting the first annual joint meeting of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, the Irish Human Rights Commission and the GB Equality and Human Rights Commission.

There is also included a short piece from myself which was published by an international journal, "Globalizations", and it focuses on the human rights connections between globalization, terror and ethics. Within Scotland it can be fairly stated that the balance sheet over the past 10 years has been more positive than negative. It has, however, helped identify some of the challenges facing us for the next period.

A new landscape has been created and it is built upon the foundations of the Scotland Act and the Human Rights Act. The Scottish Parliament has been accessible and passed significant legislation in the sphere of economic, social and cultural rights-including on mental and physical health, housing, care of the elderly, access to education, land reform, language, etc. It also, of course, established the Scottish Human Rights Commission.

The Scottish Government has recently stated its opposition to extraordinary rendition and "dawn raids" on asylum seekers and this year both the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government have supported humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza.

The negative factors have, in significant measure, resulted from the "war on terror" and the consequent counter-terror legislation. This has spilled over into the areas of immigration and asylum and complicity with torture, which in turn has fuelled a political agenda at Westminster to find ways around, or even to repeal, the Human Rights Act itself.

Whilst such negative factors may be said to be within "reserved areas" they do impact upon us in Scotland and indeed well beyond. In fact they add to the existing context within Scotland of distinctions being made between the so-called "deserving" and "undeserving" of protection of their human rights. This is, in part, due to the early use of human rights legislation made in the courts by prisoners and suspected criminals, etc.

It is currently demonstrated by the proposed amendment to the Scotland Act introducing a one year time-bar on human rights claims. This has been introduced to prevent prisoners making "slopping out" compensation claims as a result of being subjected to unlawful and degrading conditions within prison. Such conditions persisted as a result of the previous Scottish Executive making a spending decision which knowingly failed to act on its duty to prohibit degrading treatment of prisoners and did not invest so as to ensure proper sanitation within prisons.

The primary challenge then over the next 10 years - and beyond - is the development of a culture in which it is recognised that everyone has human rights. This means building upon the general public sense of fairness and support for human dignity, bringing human rights to all aspects of everyday life and finding ways and means of enabling user-friendly ways of embedding human rights into the decision making at all levels of society-for everyone.