Question Time – hate crimes

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green):

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends, during this parliamentary session, to introduce a statutory aggravation for offences motivated by malice or ill-will towards an individual based on sexual orientation, transgender identity or disability, as recommended by the working group on hate crime. (S2O-9655)

The Deputy Minister for Justice (Hugh Henry):

In the debate on the legislative programme on 6 September last year, I announced that we intend to strengthen the laws that deal with hate crime. That remains our intention. The Scottish Executive is committed to tackling prejudice in all its forms, as we believe it has no place in our society.

Patrick Harvie:

If that means that a statutory aggravation will be introduced, I warmly welcome it.
It is 18 months since the working group on hate crime reported its 14 or so recommendations, and a full year since the Executive told me that it would respond in due course. Will the minister confirm when the Executive will respond to all the recommendations, and not only to the three recommendations that relate to new legislation?

Hugh Henry:

As Patrick Harvie is aware, the working group’s recommendations are wide ranging and impact on a number of different areas, including the criminal justice system, the education curriculum, new legislation and media reporting, to name but a few. We have given very careful consideration to all the proposals. I assure Patrick Harvie that we will issue a formal response to the working group in the near future.
It is fair to say that, in the meantime, where new legislation is not required, we have made progress on many of the recommendations.

Big Issue column – Italian election

Too close to call. As I type that?s the latest word on the Italian election result, with the very narrowest of margins predicted for the centre-left bloc, and its leader Romano Prodi declaring his right to form a government. Meanwhile the centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi is refusing to admit defeat. Whatever happens, the electorate has turned out in big numbers and has found itself split almost exactly down the middle. No government will be able to claim any solid mandate, and given the history of Italian politics it may not be long before another election has to be called.
Some in the UK will decry this as the kind of chaos which is bound to result from proportional electoral systems, and it?s true that the unique version of democracy which operates at Westminster does tend to produce clear results and strong government. The trouble is that it produces strong government even when the mandate is a mere illusion. In the most recent Westminster election the voters stayed away in their droves, and barely more than a third of those who did show up voted for the party which went on to form a government. With the active support of less than one in five of the electorate, that party now has a majority in the House of Commons, and the right to send its own appointees to the House of Lords.
At least the Italian result is a true reflection of the conflicted nature of public opinion.
Besides, our antique winner-takes-all system closes off people?s minds to the alternatives which many European countries are open to. There has been suggestion of a brief return to ?technical government? in Italy ? a period of non-party rule during which the parties can reconsider their positions, realign their policies, and prepare to pitch them again to the public. Meanwhile the business of government can be allowed to proceed without major interruption.
Elsewhere there are different approaches. Germany?s most recent election was another which failed to result in a decisive win for either side, and the outcome was a ?grand coalition?, bringing together the major forces in politics to form a government, rather than just one major party and enough minor players to form a workable majority. This arrangement more often comes into play in situations of national crisis, but given a little basic maturity it can be made to work when the electorate simply chooses not to come down clearly on one side or other of an ideological divide.
Then again there are minority governments, in which the need to form a single-bloc majority is put on one side and decisions are made on an issue-by-issue basis. Alliances may form on this or that, but not always with the same participants. This might require a smaller party to commit itself to abstain on certain votes to ensure that the government is not brought down out of mere opportunism. Taking it a step further the smaller party might offer to vote for the government on a few key votes, like the budget or the appointment of Ministers, but remain on the opposition benches and debate the issues openly as they come along.
One thing is for sure ? the Westminster style is not the one we have in Scotland. Our proportional system results in genuine multi-party politics, and will at some point require us to look at different ways of forming governments. Scottish politicians, journalists and commentators should be looking now at the possibilities, and preparing to encounter them. Westminster has acted as a barrier to this creative approach for too long. It?s time we broadened our minds.

European Union – speech from debate

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green):

I begin by reflecting on Linda Fabiani’s comment about the importance of the EU, to which several members referred. Most of our legislation comes from Europe. I echo Jim Wallace’s comment about the committee’s output and the Executive’s forward-look document being useful?I certainly found them useful in preparing for this debate.

My consideration of the Commission’s work programme and its impact on and consequences for Scotland leaves me with the feeling that the European Union could aspire to so much more. We should consider what achieving the four key objectives that the Commission has set itself?prosperity, solidarity, security and Europe as a world partner?could mean for a better world.

It will not come as much of a surprise to hear that I, as a Green, would like an attempt to be made to refine prosperity. Green parties around the world have a role to play as part of a wider green movement, which includes people with other political perspectives. There is now broad acceptance of the idea that if developing countries develop in the unsustainable manner in which we have developed, global catastrophe will result. That concept is important not just at a global level but at a European level. As the European Union grows, we must find ways to propose courses of development for the new accession countries that do not echo the mistakes of our past but seek to create a better future for us all. I believe that Scotland would be up for the challenge of such change if we were represented.

I turn to solidarity, which seems implicitly to cover social justice as well as environmental issues, so I will address both. I would love to see a European Commission work programme make a climate stability pact for Europe a priority. Europe can be a world leader on the issue to a greater extent than it has been. It has done good stuff and made good progress, but placing as great an emphasis on environmental issues as is placed on economic issues would be a good start. A climate stability pact, which my colleagues in Europe have proposed, would be one way to proceed to ensure that the EU does not plunder fish stocks not only here but around the world, as we are doing at the moment, often as a result of poorly enforced and monitored agreements leading to continuing illegal fishing and the depletion of fish stocks, which has an impact on rural communities in Europe and around the world.

Security is not an end in itself. If we want to live in a peaceful world, we are more likely to achieve it through justice than through security alone. We can do much at European level to promote fundamental rights. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is a terrific document, but it should be made binding so that all people who live in Europe?including economic migrants, political refugees and other refugees?have access to those fundamental rights. Threats to our freedom come not only from outside?from other countries and groups that are often stereotyped?but from our own Governments. The emphasis on biometrics at UK and European level must be challenged. Such ideas can threaten our freedom.

Another threat is the idea that we need to reform the protection of the media. Copyright has been mentioned, but it is equally important that we reverse the convergence of the media in a few hands?which has had such a damaging impact in some European countries?and do not allow it to be replicated in other countries.
On the issue of Scotland as a world power?

Mr MacAskill: Yes!

Patrick Harvie:
I beg your pardon?I meant Europe as a world power. Scotland as a world power?how about that?
Europe could be at the forefront of reforming the global trading system and introducing robust controls on the trading of weapons, too many of which are used to violate human rights. It could introduce a Tobin tax?a tax on financial speculation?which would prevent damaging economic consequences for some of the world’s developing countries. I would like such ideas to appear in the European Commission’s work programme.

Kenny MacAskill urged us to regard the glass as half full rather than half empty. Scotland’s level of engagement in the European agenda has improved, as has its level of representation in Europe, so, in time?and I am sure that Kenny MacAskill will agree?we should allow ourselves a full glass, and a seat at the top table. That would allow us not only to represent Scotland’s interests in relation to the European agenda but to articulate Scotland’s vision of the Europe that we want to live in. That vision, yes, would be for a better Scotland, but it would also be for a better Europe and, ultimately, a better world.

Big Issue column – torture flights

Over recent months there has been a steadily growing body of evidence that Scotland?s airports have been used by so-called ?torture flights? ? CIA planes taking terrorism suspects overseas for interrogation by a process known as extraordinary rendition.
Like the US government?s practice of holding suspects at Guantanamo Bay, rendition is a mechanism for avoiding any kind of legal process such as fair trials, access to legal advice, or public scrutiny. Suspects being rendered have reportedly been kidnapped and drugged, shackled or blindfolded before being taken to countries such as Egypt, Syria and Uzbekistan for questioning.
Supporters of the practice stress the scale of the threat they believe terrorism poses to the world, and argue that interrogators who speak the same language as a suspect, and who have a familiarity with the same culture or religion, are more successful at getting information which may help to save many lives.
It seems clear however that there is more than one way to skin that particular cat. If it?s the skills and knowledge of a specific intelligence officer that?s required it would be far simpler, safer and probably cheaper to fly them to where they are needed. The only reason to do things the other way around is to avoid the need for due legal process, and to benefit from illegal practices such as torture without being seen to dirty one?s own hands. Because the locations of rendered prisoners are secret, no-one is able to investigate the conditions and we are forced to reply on the testimony of ex-prisoners. They tell of many forms of torture, inhumane and degrading treatment.
The UK government has always denied that it is complicit in such practices and has accepted on face value the assurances of the US that rendition is only carried out where unavoidable, and that it does not expose suspects to torture. However the evidence published this week by Amnesty International, in the report Below the radar: Secret flights to torture and ?disappearance?, not only gives case-specific accounts of the treatment of suspects, including those arrested illegally on false information, but also the way in which airports in this country are used to service the CIA?s rendition planes. The report cites Glasgow, Prestwick, RAF Leuchars and Edinburgh as airports where such planes have landed.
Amnesty is respected the world over for investigating illegal activity and the abuse of human rights. They have argued that the evidence in this latest report should prompt an independent public inquiry. Until now the Scottish Executive and other authorities have claimed that there is not enough evidence to initiate any investigation. This claim is now sounding increasingly ludicrous. Indeed the UK government recently admitted that at least one rendition flight has used Prestwick. This admission raises more questions than it answers. The government has previously attempted to deny all knowledge of any rendition flights using Scottish airports – now the tune is changing. It’s time for Scottish Ministers to reconsider their position too.
The Scottish Executive claims that Scotland is ?the best small country in the world?. If your business is rendition and torture, it certainly seems that the slogan is true. But for most Scots, the merest hint that we are implicated in the intolerable practice of extraordinary rendition is a matter for shame and outrage. It does great harm to the reputation of Scotland and Glasgow to be even remotely associated with the US’s flagrant abuse of international law, and if there?s one thing we could do to turn Jack McConnell?s cheap marketing slogan into a reality it would be to give our police the authority to impound, board and search the next CIA flight which comes into our airspace.

NEWS RELEASE – Amnesty report on torture flights

AMNESTY RENDITION REPORT CITES GLASGOW AIRPORT: CITY MSP URGES POLICE TO RECONSIDER CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION

There is now overwhelming evidence to justify a public inquiry and a police investigation into the use of Scottish airports by CIA rendition flights, Green Glasgow MSP and speaker on justice Patrick Harvie said today following the release of the Amnesty International report Below the radar: Secret flights to torture and ?disappearance?. The dossier reveals details of planes used to ferry illegally-held detainees to countries where torture is a common interrogation method, and cites Glasgow, Prestwick, RAF Leuchars and Edinburgh as airports where such planes have landed.

Green Glasgow MSP Patrick Harvie said, “It certainly seems that Scotland has indeed become the best small country in the world, that’s if your business is rendition and torture. It does Glasgow no good to be even remotely associated with the US’s ongoing flouting of international law, never mind be the hub for numerous flights carrying suspects to torture centres.

“Despite official refusal to investigate, the evidence keeps coming. Amnesty is respected the world over for investigating illegal activity – this dossier should prompt the Executive to instigate an independent public inquiry. Moreover, legal authorities have until now claimed that there is not enough evidence to initiate a police investigation – that claim sounds increasingly ludicrous as more and more evidence comes to light. It’s time Strathclyde Police reconsidered their response.”

Use of Scottish airports includes:

- Plane N313P-N4476S, a Boeing 737-7ET (BBJ) aircraft, has passed through Glasgow Airport 19 times (see p35 of AI report)

- a Gulfstream V executive jet, variously registered as N379P, N8068V and N44982, has been the plane most often identified with known cases of rendition – this has passed through Glasgow Airport 20 times and Prestwick 36 times (p37)

- recorded movements of N85VM-N227SV, Gulfstream IV plane, include one stop at Edinburgh, two at Glasgow, and 10 at RAF Leuchars in Fife (see p41)

Greens have been seeking a meeting with Strathclyde Police over the issue of the use of Scottish airports for the past six months.

Following the UK government’s admission that a rendition flight has used Prestwick airport (as reported in The Herald, 01/04/06), Patrick Harvie, said, “This admission raises more questions than it answers. The government has previously attempted to deny all knowledge of any rendition flights using Scottish airports – now ministers are changing their tune. I’m glad this man has been brought to justice but there are possibly hundreds of other flights that may have stopped in Scotland and it’s high time the public knew the full facts. Now that the government story is changing, Strathclyde police should reconsider calls for an investigation.”

The Amnesty report states clearly:

“The extensive reporting by the media, human rights organizations and parliamentary bodies of specific flight numbers and chartering companies which appear to be involved in renditions constitutes ?reasonable grounds? for suspicion.” (p26)

ENDS

For further information call the Green MSP press office on 0771 761 8771.

Notes

Other key extracts from report:

p3 – “Every one of the victims of rendition interviewed by Amnesty International has described incidents of torture and other ill-treatment.”

p3 – the full extent of rendition still unknown – AI suggests evidence in this report could be only the tip of the iceberg

p26 – Chicago Convention cannot be used to stall or prevent investigation – “. . . the Chicago Convention holds that every state has the right to require that an aircraft flying over its territory must land at a designated airport for inspection if there are ?reasonable grounds to conclude that it is being used for any purpose inconsistent with the aims of the convention?. Given that the practice of rendition violates international human rights law, it follows that transferring or aiding and abetting in the transfer of a detainee in such circumstances cannot be a purpose consistent with the aims of the Chicago Convention, especially considering the internationally recognized, absolute prohibition of torture. The extensive reporting by the media, human rights organizations and parliamentary bodies of specific flight numbers and chartering companies which appear to be involved in renditions constitutes ?reasonable grounds? for suspicion.” (bold added)

p27 – estimates the number of CIA flights that have gone over European airspace

For more on Green MSPs’ work against rendition flights, visit www.scottishgreens.org.uk and search for “torture”.