Meeting with UK Joint Committee

The HRCS was invited to meet with the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, in Edinburgh on 14th January.  Justice Scotland and the Muslim Council of Scotland were also in attendance for the session and we seized the opportunity to discuss issues with a UK perspective:

1. A strategic response from Parliament to the Concluding Observations (COs) published by the United Nations eg on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights published in 2015 and the forthcoming COs from the Committee on Economic and Social Rights expected in Summer 2016.  Also the need for a strategic review and response to the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UK’s performance.
2. Monitoring and evaluating progress on the UK Government’s policy on ‘Business and Human Rights’.
3. Threatened abolition of the Human Rights Act and the need for a focus on the enforcement of existing rights.
4. The Trade Union Bill, its consequences and its impact.
5. Blacklisting and the delivery of recommendations from the Parliament’s report of March 2015, as well as role of public procurement in using companies that do not blacklist workers.

We were pleased to have such a positive dialogue with the Committee. http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/joint-select/human-rights-committee/