Respect Scottish Sovereignty delivers letter to Angus Robertson, MSP

Asking him to support putting internationally recognised Civil and Political Rights into Scots law

Hand delivering the letter for Angus Robertson MSP at the goods entrance to the Scottish Parliament

The following letter by Henry Ferguson of Respect Scottish Sovereignty was both emailed and hand delivered to Angus Robertson MSP at Holyrood today, exactly 3 weeks since Respect Scottish Sovereignty’s Petition 2135 was published on the Scottish Parliament website:

The Scottish administration must give its official response to the petition by February 3rd, which will be published on Parliament’s website, at which time Respect Scottish Sovereignty will comment. In addition, Parliament’s research centre, SPICe, will prepare a briefing, also published on the Holyrood website. Then, the parliamentary Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee (CPPPC) will consider the Petition, the Scottish administration’s response and the SPICe briefing, and decide on further action.

At the time of writing, the petition has 2,152 signatures. This is far short of the number needed. Signatures of 1% of the electorate (around 40,000) obtained within 100 days (by 16th April 2025), would meet international protocols for launching a national referendum. That must be our first target - to convince CPPPC that the Scottish People mean business. A second internationally recognised target, this time to convince MSPs to act, will be 80,000 signatures (2%) in the next 18 months - by around the next Holyrood election.

In May 2024, the UN told the UK that it must put the ICCPR into domestic legislation. Unless we in Scotland can demonstrate to the UN that we tried to do so but were unsuccessful, any international case we bring before the ICJ will come to nothing.

Please help spread the word about the Petition and encourage everyone you know to sign it.

Mr Angus Roberston MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs & Culture
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh EH99 1SP

Scotland

To: Angus.Robertson.msp@parliament.scot

27^th January 2025

Re: International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR)

Dear Mr Robertson,

ICCPR - the Big Picture

As you may be aware, I’m the author of Petition 2135, published on the Holyrood petitions website on 6^th January 2025 and originally authored on behalf of WeCollect.scot, founding member of RespectScottishSovereignty (RSS). I understand you’ve already been in contact about ICCPR with Mr. Andy Anderson and I’m copying him and the two other RSS founder members on this letter. I also understand from the parliamentary petitions’ Admin Team that ScotGov is currently preparing official written comments on our Petition which should be filed with the Admin Team by 3^rd February 2025, when it will become public.

The UK has implemented ICCPR…

As you know, the UK ratified the ICCPR in 1976 and until now it was believed that the UK hadn’t implemented the Covenant in domestic law. I now believe that’s not the case. In Scotland, enactment of ICCPR is explicitly permitted by Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998 which makes clear provision for unrestricted implementation by the Scottish Parliament and Government of such international treaties (i.e., without reference to reserved powers). Implementation being within the legal competence of the Scottish Parliament, the Referendums (Scotland) Act 2020 is therefore applicable.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/46/schedule/5

So, the decision on whether to fully implement ICCPR throughout Scottish legislation, with or without reference to either devolved or reserved powers, now lies with Holyrood MSPs, not with Westminster. Cleverly, Westminster can still claim to the outside world that Scotland’s Claim of Right has been respected. But it then instructs MSPs to do exactly what the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) says it shouldn’t do:

“The Commission recommends that the UK, at every level of government, desists with all policy activities which restrict or undermine the level of protection for civil and political rights as set out in the present Covenant…”

Mr Robertson, if there’s one thing I learned during my career as audit partner with a major accounting firm it’s that an independent viewpoint is worth significantly more than comments from a biased and self-serving interested party like, in this case, the UK. SHRC is Scotland’s independent UN-accredited Human Rights watchdog and I urge you to take its recommendations and suggestions very seriously. SHRC - backed up by the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) - is clearly waving a red flag which says that the UK Parliament, Government and Civil Service are undermining ICCPR implementation and I alert you to the implications of ignoring this. The Scottish People are watching with great interest.

The RSS Petition to implement ICCPR

After extensive discussions with the parliamentary petitions’ Admin Team, we’ve agreed precise wording for our Petition and the final headline text corresponds exactly to the recommendation contained in the UNHRC’s report of 3rd May 2024 on UK compliance with ICCPR.

You’ll be aware that the Scottish Parliament Petition rulebook forbids petitions which are contrary to existing law, so acceptance by the Admin Team confirms that Petition 2135 is legal.

Further, it’s consistent with the views of Prof. Alan Miller of Strathclyde University^[1] when he analysed the UK Supreme Court judgement on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) during a 2022 webinar event^[2]:

“• On the one hand and significantly so, the judgment essentially reaffirms that human rights are not reserved to the UK Parliament by the Scotland Act and that Scotland can incorporate UN treaties, so thank you Donald Dewar.

• … the Supreme Court judgment on the UNCRC Bill is rooted in the past. It will not define the limits for the future and indeed its impact is actually more likely to be that of helping to focus debate on the next steps on Scotland’s human rights journey.”

My personal suggestions

As you prepare the official Government comments on RSS Petition 2135, I urge you to consider the following two suggestions. The first allows you to fulfil Scotland’s international Human Rights treaty obligations. The second would enable Scotland - Politicians and People, working together - to launch a referendum in accordance with internationally recognised protocols for Popular Sovereignty / Direct Democracy (DD) which, should launching thresholds be met^[3], would prepare the way for a national vote on whether the People accept or reject ICCPR implementation as proposed by ScotGov^[4]. The suggestions are:

• ScotGov agrees with our request to give full legal effect to ICCPR in the devolved law-making process, and

• the phrase “Subject to referendum” is inserted as the last article in the proposed Bill to implement ICCPR.

I believe these suggestions are within ScotGov’s competence and conform with both the Referendums (Scotland) Act 2020 and the Scotland Act 1998. The second is based on my experience with Direct Democracy (DD) in Switzerland, where I’ve lived for 50 years.

Should you have any questions about the above, I’m sure SHRC and Prof. Miller, both copied on this letter, would be happy to respond.

Together with my RSS colleagues, I look forward to responding to your comments on our Petition in due course.

Henry B. Ferguson

CC:

First Minister

Deputy First Minister

Lorna Slater MSP

Patrick Harvie MSP

Ash Regan MSP

Keith Brown MSP

Jackson Carlaw MSP

David Torrance MSP

Fergus Ewing MSP

Foysol Choudhury MSP

Maurice Golden MSP

CPPPC Admin Team

Blair McDougall MP

Tom Arthur MSP

Neil Bibby MSP

Russell Findlay MSP

Jamie Greene MSP

Paul O'Kane MSP

Katy Clark MSP

Pam Gosal MSP

Ross Greer MSP

Angela Constance MSP

Karen Adam MSP

SNAP 2 Secretariat

Scottish Human Rights Commission

Prof. Alan Miller

Andy Anderson

Leah Gunn Barrett

David Younger

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^[1] Inaugural Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission 2008 - 2016; promoting and protecting human rights in Scotland and representing Scotland in the UN human rights system.

^[2] www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/lawschool/blog/thesupremecourtsjudgmentontheuncrcincorporationscotlandbill/

^[3] “Launching” a Referendum is a three-month process during which 1% of the electorate can contest proposed legislation. If both launching thresholds are met, enactment is deferred and a national vote is held in due course.

^[4] If, after the three months, no Referendum is launched or the signature threshold is not met, then the proposed ScotGov legislation would be immediately implemented.