By David Younger
Respect Scottish Sovereignty
The Path to Self-Determination
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) was drawn up in 1966 and ratified by the UK government on 16th March 1976. It was not, however, passed into law.
The above notwithstanding, the Scottish government have every right to pass legislation in respect of all articles of ICCPR as specifically laid out in article 5. of the Scotland Act. It is their refusal to do so which is the subject, not only of our campaign but of work by the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) – a body entrenched within the administration of Scottish government:
“Earlier this year, both the UN Human Rights Committee and the Scottish Human Rights Commission strongly and publicly criticised ScotGov’s inaction. ICCPR provides for direct Political Rights of all citizens - such as Popular Initiatives and Referendums - and, for the first time, would give real meaning to the term Popular Sovereignty. There is no reason preventing ScotGov from immediately enacting ICCPR into Scottish legislation, just as it has recently done with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This campaign could last until the end of the current Parliament.”
Our work in presenting our request for a petition in regard of the ICCPR has been fobbed off but we are continuing with increasing public support. This refusal is all the more incomprehensible given that the Scottish government passed the International Covenant on Economic Cultural and Social Rights into law without demur. Our campaign goes on.
But the right to self-determination (art. 25 of the ICCPR) is only the beginning of our direct democracy project. Our colleague, Andy Anderson has achieved a great deal in his home authority in Ayrshire with assembly groups formed in each of the wards. Plans are advancing to set up similar hubs in Fife and Edinburgh with the ultimate objective to have hubs operating across every local authority area in Scotland. For the target of allowing the people of Scotland to express their opinion, we aim to use the Referendums Act 2020 albeit with some alteration to the terms of the Act, and for a voting platform, Scotland Decides whose website is currently undergoing updating.
Although the ICCPR, if passed into law, still does not allow us to hold a referendum on independence, the covenant, if passed into UK law would change things dramatically. It would then become illegal to refuse to allow Scots to vote for anything they wanted including so-called reserved matters. In the meantime, however, we still can hold a referendum with internationally recognised authority by using the Scotland Decides voting system.
With popular support, the future could be very interesting.
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