Did you mean war speaker:Christina McKelvie?
Christina McKelvie: ...that, on 21 November, the First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister calling for the UK to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to ask the International Criminal Court to investigate whether war crimes have been committed by Israel and Hamas, and for the UK to recognise the state of Palestine. A junior Foreign Office minister replied, restating the UK Government’s position in...
Christina McKelvie: Over the weekend, António Guterres, the UN’s secretary general, said: “The war in the Middle East is having a staggering and unacceptable number of ... casualties, including women and children, every day. This must stop. I reiterate my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.” Will Carole Mochan join me in imploring all our colleagues—every member across the chamber—to agree...
Christina McKelvie: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I have been listening to the tone police all my political life. I will not be listening to them, going forward—even from today. The point that I made was that the possession of nuclear weapons has not prevented states from having terrible acts perpetrated on them, which lays bare Stephen Kerr’s weak argument that nuclear weapons prevent war. They do...
Christina McKelvie: ...people who lost their lives as a result of Nazi persecution as well as those who perished in the genocides that took place in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. As Fergus Ewing and Alexander Stewart have said, this year’s theme for Holocaust memorial day, “Ordinary People”, is particularly poignant. It shines a light on the measurable and devastating impact that the Holocaust and...
Christina McKelvie: ...Rights. Many points have been made about the UNCRC. I recognise the passionate commitment of colleagues from across the chamber to the UNCRC. The Scottish Government did not deliberately bring forward a UNCRC bill that was outwith our competence. The whole Parliament, all its members and the Presiding Officer at the time agreed that the bill was within our competence. This is a complex...
Christina McKelvie: I thank the members who have given me a warm welcome back to the chamber. I am delighted to be responding to the debate. I thank Michelle Thomson for proposing the debate and for her incredibly strong and reflective speech. It will give us all pause for thought, and I am grateful for that. We have covered a wide range of issues, reflecting the priority and seriousness that we all give to...
Christina McKelvie: I agree with Rachel Hamilton. I hope that through including it in my speech today and raising awareness in Parliament, lots of people will talk about it. We will do a bit of that ourselves today. We should use all our networks to make sure that people take up the opportunities that come from that work. I hope that members from across the Parliament will support Jamie Hepburn in his quest to...
Christina McKelvie: ...events. Almost 20 years on from the unanimous adoption of Security Council resolution 1325, there is still work to do to increase the understanding of the specific and disproportionate impact of war and conflict on women and girls. We have heard about that from many members today, including Stewart Stevenson, Johann Lamont and Alison Johnstone. Stewart Stevenson noted that there continue...
Christina McKelvie: ...me that they thought that they were losing their mind. We are not alone in that; many women feel the same way. It is case of sharing that lived experience. However, women telling one another their war stories from a war that only they know about will not change their experience or the experiences of younger women who will face the same battles in the future. That is why it is so important...
Christina McKelvie: ...for humanity. Just 30 articles long, it set out for the first time the fundamental human rights that belong to all people, everywhere and in all circumstances. Emerging from the brutality of world war two, the universal declaration recognised that “disregard and contempt for human rights” had “resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind”. The United...
Christina McKelvie: I can heartily give a commitment that all stakeholders who have an interest will take part in that consultation. I will certainly encourage them to do so, and I hope that Mr Sarwar will do so, too. Given all his networks and connections, I would be keen for that to happen. The advisory group’s recommendations overlap with the findings of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee. There is...
Christina McKelvie: ...place. Alongside our fellowship, great stuff is going on to demonstrate practical support for such work. This year, the Faculty of Advocates launched the Scottish bar international human rights award to honour men and women overseas who have championed human rights in the most challenging circumstances. I am sure that Gail Ross and Alex Cole-Hamilton will be interested that the UN...
Christina McKelvie: ...Scotland’s latest campaign leaflet, but it was actually said over a century ago. In 1913, William Cowan presented a successful Scottish home rule bill to Westminster, but the outbreak of World War One prevented the creation of a strong Scottish parliament which could have completely changed Scotland’s modern history.” So, 105 years ago, we could have had that home rule, that near...
Christina McKelvie: I normally like to start a debate such as this with an outward-looking and positive tone. I will come on to that soon, but first I simply cannot ignore the inhumanity that the world has witnessed this week in Trump’s America, and in the proposals in Italy to round up the Roma. Imagine—although we do not have to, because we can see it on our TV screens—children, toddlers and babies being...
Christina McKelvie: ...people of Scotland. That includes addressing the mistakes of the past and lifting the burden of discrimination from those who have experienced it. Today, we take another step along the journey towards building a truly equal Scotland for all. Alongside the apology that was made by the First Minister in November 2017, the bill recognises that gay and bisexual men in Scotland were unfairly...
Christina McKelvie: ...not somehow imposed on an unwilling United Kingdom. The reality is that the UK was one of the architects of the imperative human rights agenda that grew out of the devastation of the second world war. The European convention on human rights has its roots in the philosophical tradition of universal rights, which stretches back to the enlightenment of the 18th century and the French...
Christina McKelvie: Kenneth White, on reviewing Billy Kay’s book “The Scottish World” says: “While others have questioned the self-confidence of the Scots, Kay has travelled the world from Bangkok to Brazil, Warsaw to Waikiki, and found ringing endorsements for the integrity and intellect, the poetry and passion of the Scottish people in every country he has visited. He expands people’s view of...
Christina McKelvie: ...blind to what will be the end of everything that we have had from the EU—from a legal guarantee of human rights and social protection, and the support of major national partners in the event of war, to CAP payments. That is like someone setting fire to their own house and cheering at the destruction as the roof blows up. The four freedoms have a series of associated social...
Christina McKelvie: ...on human rights when it was signed in Rome on 4 November 1950. In the early 1940s, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill raised the idea of a council of Europe. As Europe emerged from world war two reeling from some of the horrific details of the holocaust, Winston Churchill’s first thought was, “We need to come together.” The idea behind the Council of Europe was to set up an...
Christina McKelvie: ...week, the Italian coastguard reported that it had saved more than 10,000 refugees who were taking the dangerous sea passage to enter Europe via Libya. Desperate people take to the sea to escape war, discrimination, fear and intimidation, and many of them do not make it to the end of the journey. I ask members to imagine that it was a member of their family. On Sunday, my friend Lord AIf...