OK, off to the airport in a minute to catch the flight that will take me to what will be the capital city of our human rights world for the next few days – yes, that's right, Nottingham! Well, with its most famous son (not counting...

Barely a day goes by at the moment without the Chinese authorities’ appalling human rights record falling into the spotlight, and today is no exception. Sadly, early yesterday morning the human rights activist Hu Jia was sentenced to...

Our Education Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, will soon have reason to be thankful for the human rights she enjoys in this country. Tomorrow she is leaving for China , leading a Scottish Government delegation “to strengthen our engagement...

Today we visited a UNHCR centre at 'President Bridge' in Damascus where registered refugees come to collect food and supplies. Once every two months people are allocated a food ration of rice, tea, oil, sugar, lentils rice and pasta...

Martin Luther King Jr is a hero of mine. He had a belief in the dignity of man and made this real through his practice of nonviolence as a means of social change. Forty years ago today, he gave his "I have been to the mountaintop"...