Scotland: A Good Global Citizen

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 1 April 2014.

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Photo of Siobhan McMahon Siobhan McMahon Labour

I am pleased to be able to take part in this afternoon’s debate, particularly as it is taking place during the Christian season of Lent. As most if not all members know, Lent is the period when Christians remember and reflect on the time when Jesus spent 40 days and nights fasting in the desert, while being tempted by the devil.

Most of us observe the season by giving up something that we enjoy, and given that we are nearly four weeks into Lent the majority of observers will be struggling to keep their promises—I know that I am. However, we have only a couple of weeks to go and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Many other people in less fortunate parts of the world have to go without the most basic things every day. For them, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

That is why I welcome the chance to participate in the debate. It is right that we recognise Scotland’s proud record on international development, reflecting on things that we have been good at doing and highlighting things that we can get better at doing. I will support the Labour amendment, which rightly recognises the invaluable contribution that individuals and aid organisations throughout Scotland make to international development. Without those people, we would not have made as much difference.

Last week, Sarah Boyack and I hosted a Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund event, entitled, “Taking care of business”. It was a chance for MSPs and guests to meet SCIAF and its partners from Colombia and hear about the impact of big business on the country’s Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities. It included presentations from representatives of the indigenous Embera community and Caritas Colombiana. We heard from Monsignor Héctor Fabio, who co-ordinates a network of offices throughout Colombia that work on peace building, human rights and assisting victims of the Colombian conflict. In December 2003, he led the negotiations that resulted in the release of foreign tourists who were held hostage by ELN guerrillas. In 2012, he received the liberty medal from the Mexican embassy in Colombia in recognition of his work to strengthen democracy and human rights in Colombia.

At the Parliament event, Monsignor Héctor Fabio was joined by Father Sterlin and Criseria Chamy, who belongs to the Embera community. Her community has experienced the negative impact of various external actors encroaching on its territory, including illegal armed actors and rich landowners who are keen to expand their cattle ranches. Criseria and her family are featured on SCIAF’s wee box this year. This is the first time that someone who is featured on the wee box has visited Scotland during Lent.

Those of us who attended the event could not fail to be moved by the personal testimonies of the three speakers, who told us about the impacts of big business on their community. I make it clear that the businesses that they spoke about were registered in the UK and Scotland and were not specifically registered in Colombia.

That is why I agree with SCIAF’s call for a coherent approach to tackling global poverty—the type of poverty that Criseria Chamy and her community have experienced. To tackle such examples, we cannot rely simply on the aid agreements that we have in place. As SCIAF stated in its briefing for the debate,

“a ‘policy coherence’ approach must be at the heart of Scotland’s role as a global citizen; with policy decisions across the whole of Government being made coherently through a development lens”.

I could not agree more. The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Bill that is making its way through Parliament gives us an excellent opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to that proposal. I hope that the Scottish Government can support that.

It will come as no surprise to the minister that I will speak about Malawi. I have spoken about many aspects of my visit there on a number of occasions in the chamber, but I have never addressed the human rights issues that are apparent in the country. I am extremely concerned about those and I believe that Scotland and the Scottish Government could do more on that.

During my time in Malawi, I visited Chichiri and Zomba prisons. Although the conditions for all prisoners are horrendous, for female prisoners they are inhumane. Despite the efforts of charities and individuals—none more so than Sister Anna Tommasi—conditions are only getting worse for women. I witnessed 40 women and children sharing one cell. They had to sleep on the floor with no bedding and had to take a shower three at a time.

I spoke to a woman who was 74 and had been in prison for more than 20 years without trial. She was not a one-off; that is the norm. As members can imagine, living in such conditions has had a considerable effect on her health, but the females of the prison have no access to the prison hospital, which is reserved for the males.

An Amnesty International review of Malawi in 2011 showed that prisons there were overcrowded—the prison system has a capacity of 6,000 but was holding about 13,000 prisoners. Prison congestion was exacerbated by prolonged pre-trial detention. Overcrowding, poor nutrition, poor sanitation and inadequate health facilities contributed to the spread of infections, including tuberculosis and measles. Many prisoners relied on families and charities for supplementary food.

In June 2010, prisoners in Chichiri prison were locked in overcrowded communal cells with poor ventilation and had to sleep sitting up. Up to 200 prisoners shared one toilet. One inmate had been held for nine years without trial; he was later released on bail. The female section of Chichiri prison was similarly congested. Eight of the 55 female prisoners were mothers with babies. Further to that, a report on monitoring of the prisons in Malawi by the Malawi Human Rights Commission in the period between December 2011 and March 2012 revealed that 79 prisoners had died.

It is clear that human rights are continuously being breached in Malawi. I know that many organisations, including churches and schools throughout Scotland, continue to carry out important work in the country and I would never wish that to stop. We should not underestimate how invaluable the aid that the Scottish Government has sent to the country is and it must continue, but I wonder whether our agreement with the country could be stronger. We cannot allow the conditions that I have just outlined to persist. We must do more—not to the detriment of others, but to the benefit of all citizens of Malawi. That is our duty as an international partner and would truly support the laudable aim of Scotland being a good global citizen.