Jackson Carlaw, convener of the "Citizens Participation and Public Petitions Committee," is ignoring 6,965 citizens
Holyrood’s Citizens Participation and Public Petitions Committee (CPPPC) first considered our petition to incorporate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights into Scots law on April 2nd. It would give Scots the right to launch referendums on local and national issues to stop bad legislation and hold politicians to account.
Nearly 7,000 people have signed PE2135, but the CPPPC won’t consider it again until at least the autumn.
Jackson Carlaw, the CPPPC convener, made no secret of his disdain for the petition at the April 2nd meeting, where he said he wanted to shut it down. Thanks to MSPs Fergus Ewing and Maurice Golden, he was forced to keep it alive.
Back in 2022, Carlaw posed with a golden eagle in front of Parliament because he supported a petition to amend the Animals and Wildlife Act 2020 to allow falconers to hunt protected mountain hares. At the time, the petition had fewer than 3000 signatures.
On the merits of that petition, a reader in The National commented:
Happily, that petition withered on the proverbial vine - mountain hares are safe from falconers for now.
But Carlaw, who claims to want to increase public participation, doesn’t back a petition that would put power back into the hands of the sovereign Scottish People. That would be a step too far for this old Tory unionist.
However, Respect Scottish Sovereignty, the grassroots group behind PE2135, doesn’t intend to let Mr. Carlaw off the hook.
Today, we hand delivered a letter to him 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 committee to finally answer our questions and (ii) request the Parliamentary research unit to issue a Fact 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’s the letter:
Mr. Jackson Carlaw MSP, Convener 1st July, 2025
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee (CPPPC)
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh EH99 1SPDear 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, 6,965 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 2nd April 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
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 2nd April meeting. This is unacceptable to me, to my RSS National Committee colleagues and to our 6,965 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 (28th January), 202500451442 (5th February) and 202500466354 (16th May).
In the absence of any reply, I conclude that Mr Robertson must agree with me and my RSS colleagues that, in accordance with the Scotland Act 1998 and the Referendums (Scotland) Act 2020, Parliament has the power to (i) fully implement ICCPR, and (ii) call a popular referendum to approve the proposed Act.
Thank you for the work you’re doing leading the CPPPC.
On behalf of Respect Scottish Sovereignty (RSS),
(s) Henry B. Ferguson, Petitioner & Vice Convener
CC: CPPPC Committee:
Mr. Foysol Choudhury MSP
Mr. Fergus Ewing MSP
Mr. Maurice Golden MSP
Mr. David Torrance MSPCabinet Secretary CEAC, Angus Robertson
Citizen Participation & Public Petitions Admin
Scottish Human Rights Commission
Prof. Alan Miller
RSS National Committee
If you haven’t yet signed PE2135, please take a moment to do so now. And you can write to your MSP asking them to support it using this handy tool.
First of all lets start by saying thank you Leah for all your hard work, some of us do notice and are eternally grateful. The problem Scotland has isn't the union its not even Westminster its the SNP and the Scottish parliament I call them that because that's what it states on the building.
I could list an arm full suspicions regarding the SNP and the SG from asset striping Scotland to Alex Salmond to 600K gone missing to this petition and it all point to one thing the SNP and the Scottish parliament I say Scottish parliament because its all of them every single last one would rather see Scotland destroyed than saved.
I been saying for weeks now, we can either destroy the SNP or let the SNP destroy Scotland the odds are Scotland is going to be destroyed! There is a lot of people who claim to support Independence and yes they do but and I do mean but there bank accounts is more important. Every day I hope and pray two things will happen 1 the SNP goes bust and 2 The National which I call the rag has stopped all together, I never ever trusted the writers or this unionist rag and I was furious when this paper posted an article about salmond the day after he won his case.
The only power I have is next year at the ballot box and its here I'll defend Scotland and our way of life and yet we have a blogger telling everyone to give the SNP two votes, I despair.
I'm not surprised by the actions of these people who work for the British state, if there is one thing I know and that that they'd betray the British state if there was an alternative, they have no loyalty other than to themself.
One day, when Leah writes her mémoires, she’ll be able to include photos of her personally delivering letters on Direct Democracy to John Swinney, Angus Robertson and now Jackson Carlaw ! Thanks from me too, Leah 👏