Quakers respond to All Our Rights in Law consultation

 Quakers in Scotland have responded to the call for views by the independent task force set up by the Scottish Government which is currently consulting about a potential new Human Rights law for Scotland which hopes to enshrine in law rights which we have lost as a result of withdrawing from the EU.  To enable Friends in Scotland to engage with this consultation, Andrew set up a workshop and representatives from each area meeting were invited to attend. Sixteen friends attended and after watching a short video about what the proposed  legislation was about we had a lively discussion about the advantages and shortcomings of a human rights approach to address citizens’ needs. We agreed  that rights are important and spoke about examples where Quakers have fought for rights being established such as the ending of slavery; rights of conscientious objectors; and more recently the recognition of equal marriage. However we also agreed that just having rights is not sufficient; rights need to be underpinned by understanding, accountability and resources for them to be fulfilled. The Quaker submission was enthusiastically received by members of the Task Force who wrote " This is fantastic. It's been wonderful to hear from so many different groups.  Your report is so thorough and you made powerful points -- thank you so much.  You can find the Quaker submission at the RIGHTS section of Our Work   in Documents