Scottish Human Rights

The 60 th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Wednesday means that its been a heck of a busy week. We kicked it off with the " Our World – Our Rights " conference last Saturday. 150 folk gathered in the (rather...

Anniversaries. You know for ages that they’re coming up and then suddenly you’re dashing around at the last minute looking for a suitable demonstration of your affections. Apparently the 60th anniversary is the diamond one but while...

In last week’s blog I told how myself and Bernard O’Hear (Amnesty’s Country Co-ordinator for China) weren’t allowed to present the Chinese Consulate with 2,500 campaign postcards collected in support of Hu Jia during the Edinburgh...

We’ve been waiting for ages for the Chinese Consulate to respond to our invitation to discuss our Edinburgh Festival campaign for imprisoned human rights campaign Hu Jia . During this year’s Festival 2,500 people filled in action cards...

My in-laws are Polish. They live, perhaps not surprisingly, in Poland. I remember visiting a couple of years back and being in the company of some friends/acquaintances (can’t quite remember) who had a small child. My own little girl...

Latin. I could never be doing with it. Granted it was never seen as a core subject at my comprehensive school in Glasgow and somehow I managed to miss a lot of the token Tuesday afternoon classes – for which you would probably get an...

Amnesty's Scottish office has uncovered evidence of a case of extraordinary rendition in Scotland. Admittedly the extra-judicial transfer for the purposes of torture took place in 1684. And the barbaric state willing to sanction the...

Educating our kids – it’s a big business, but its so much more than that. And so it was that the intrepid Amnesty team found themselves at the Scottish Learning Festival – an annual conference to enhance the learning and teaching...

So U Win Tin is finally free. The 78-year old, Burmas longest serving political prisoner, had experienced harsh prison conditions for 19 years for calling for political change, but refused to accept an amnesty from the Government as to...

On Saturday 30 August, Amnesty joined thousands of people in support of LGBT rights in this year's Pride Glasgow march. It turned out to be the biggest Scottish Pride event on record, with a staggering 5000 people marching through the...

Just as soon as we get this Festival nonsense out of the way. Yes, with 34 events and two exhibitions the Edinburgh Festival is rather dominating life in Amnesty's Scottish office at the moment. There's also a daily Festival blog...

Until this year I’ve never had any particular reason to note July 25th in my diary. Now I have two birthdays marked in, although sadly there’s not a lot to celebrate. The first birthday is that of Hu Jia – the subject of this year’s...

Its pouring with rain, but not too cold, and my things-to-do list is as long as my arm. That means it must be July and the Edinburgh Festival is nearly upon us. How to describe our annual cultural jamboree without drifting off into...

On Tuesday I got the chance to get out of the office, away from all the “doing”, and join a group of academics at St Andrew’s University for a much needed chance to “think”. The group in question were psychologists from various...

Some time ago I had a bit of a moan on this blog about the lack of a human rights culture in Scotland . Central to my gripe was the fact that while London has a number of human rights organisations ( Liberty , British Institute of...

This week saw the 19th anniversary of the brutal military crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in Tiananmen Square . All around the world Amnesty International organised events in solidarity with the Tiananmen Mothers , an...

Last week I met with some Chinese students living inEdinburgh, as part of a round-table discussion about China and its portrayal inthe Scottish media and in society generally. The three students who took part were amongst those who...

The term humanitarian aid tells its own story. That when disasters happen it is a basic, and inherently human, response to rush to help the victims. Cyclone Nargis killed tens of thousands of people, and displaced around a million more...

The debate on violence against women at the Scottish TUC annual congress in Inverness was remarkable. Not because it featured two strong composites, each committing the labour movement in Scotland to firm action against discrimination...

To the SNP Spring Conference, where a motion on Tasers awaits the attention of delegates. For those of you who have never typed "taser abuse" into Youtube these are pistol-shaped electro-shock weapons. They fire two metal probes that...