Scottish Human Rights

Amnesty Group Paisley are excited to say that Fri 4 May saw the Unite against Human Trafficking Conference come together in what turned out to be a very successful and productive day. The group planned the conference in partnership...

Mary Fee MSP, Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee blogs on Amnesty International’s new research on Scottish Gypsy Travellers I was honoured to chair the launch of two reports by Amnesty International on...

Katie Cunningham from the Amnesty Student Group blogs on marching in favour of same-sex marriage I’m not exaggerating when I say that same sex marriage is one of the most important, relevant human rights issues in the western world...

This guest post is from Jessica Wade, Chair of the Edinburgh St Mark's Amnesty group. Recently, I turned 30. Not a big deal really, the lucky ones amongst us all do it, get through it, and move on to the next one. Still, there was a...

The arrival of Chinese pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang at Edinburgh Zoo has generated a lot of media, including cutesy pictures galore and a multitude of puns of the ‘eats, shoots and leaves’ variety. At Amnesty Scotland we like pandas...

I arrived home the other night (from some theatre reviewing for the Freedom of Expression Award ) to find much fuss on Facebook around a Parliamentary motion tabled by John Mason MSP . Mr Mason’s motion notes “the current discussion”...

I see that Margaret Mitchell MSP is leading the Member’s Debate in the Parliament tomorrow on moves to merge the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland with the Public Services Ombudsman This feeds into a wider consideration of...

This was the speech by John Wilkes of the Scottish Refugee Council at the launch of Refugee Week 2011. We liked it so much we asked for permission to reproduce it here…… On behalf of everyone at Scottish Refugee Council I am delighted...

There is much ado about the new Bill on sectarianism launched by the Scottish Government, with a mere ten days to consider, debate and finalise so that the eventual Act can be in place for the start of the new footy season. It takes me...

This Taser campaign hasn’t been at all what I expected it to be. To recap, Tasers are fundamentally dangerous weapons, long known to Amnesty researchers as the tool of choice for torturers because of their ability to inflict intense...

Working for Amnesty International there are always some easy hits. There are few people who will argue that the Chinese Government isn’t executing enough people for tax offences . And I’ve yet to hear anyone defend the armed groups in...

Seems like everyone and their extended family has had something to say about Channel 4's vulgar over-the-top creation Big Fat Gypsy Weddings . I have adopted the same avoidance strategy that has served me so well for "Wife Swap", "The...

Amnesty is building a nice relationship with the Glasgow Youth Film Festival . This innovative and growing project features workshop sessions from tv production and script writing through to breakdancing. My own session was a little...

New Year Resolutions… Since it would be fair to say that we haven’t been the best bloggers over the last year or so, and with new year resolutions to ‘do much better’ burning brightly in our hearts, we thought we’d start 2011 by...

Great day today as the comedians vanquished their opponents at Amnesty’s “comedians vs critics football match” today at Edinburgh’s Meadowbank stadium. What’s more it was SUNNY in SCOTLAND, a rare occurrence. I am even sunburned! The...

I’ve been here at the Edinburgh Festival for three days so far and it’s fantastic. It’s been sunny for starters, something of a first for me here. There’s a wider array of ‘amnesty stuff’ going on than ever before, so It’s already...

Update 9/8: Our comedy podcast’s now on iTunes , so it’s super-easy to subscribe. What are you waiting for? So, you’ve heard about our hilarious new comedy podcast we’re producing for the Edinburgh Festival with The Guardian . But you...

Sometimes its nice to get out of the office and onto the streets – gets you back in touch with what this campaigning mallarky is all about. Yesterday marked two years in jail for Binayak Sen – a remarkable man who has spent decades...

Amnesty is going all arty in Aberdeen this month. First up is the We Are All Born Free exhibition , part of Amnesty’s celebrations of the recent 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . The UDHR was signed on...

Yes, the Scottish blog is back after a wee break. Sorry, there just haven’t been enough hours in the day (or days in the week for that matter). One of the things that’s been keeping me busy is the launch of the exciting new interactive...