Amnesty International have today welcomed the Scottish Government’s agreement to review the human rights checks conducted by Scottish Enterprise, following a Scottish Parliament debate brought by the Scottish Greens in which MSPs from a range of parties expressed concerns about Scottish Enterprise grants to arms companies.

Commenting after the debate, Neil Cowan (Scotland Programme Director at Amnesty International UK) said:

“Today’s debate made clear that is simply not acceptable to continue to award Scottish Enterprise grants to companies involved in the manufacture and sale of arms to states accused of grave human rights abuses, including Israel.

So we strongly welcome the fact that the Scottish Government have listened to Amnesty’s long-standing call, and the call of many others including MSPs from a range of parties, and agreed to conduct a review of the human rights checks in place at Scottish Enterprise. It has long been clear that, with no company ever failing one of the checks, they are not credible and require overhaul.

It is now essential that the Scottish Government sets out what that review will involve, with it being critical that it includes independent input, review and analysis, and that it is focused on meeting Scotland’s international obligations.”