There are three different things at play here. This Government is a strong defender of the Human Rights Act 1998; any suggestion that the act should be repealed is utterly reckless, and we will resist it at every opportunity. The Human Rights Act 1998 and the Scotland Act 1998 breathe life into the ECHR, and if human rights were knocked out of that equation it would make things particularly messy. However, I will come back to that.
On the specific issue of Brexit, I repeat that we as a country have voted to remain part of Europe and that the Government wants to realise the democratic will of the people of Scotland. If we come out of Europe, that will knock out a host of European directives on the equal treatment of people irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, equal treatment with regard to employment and occupation and equal treatment of men and women in terms of access to and supply of services. One of the best examples, which I have mentioned in my letter, is the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which is based on but goes further than the ECHR.
In the Scottish Government’s view, the ECHR is not the ceiling but the floor; it is the baseline or foundation on which we build, whether we are talking about further enhancements of human rights or other areas. Brexit will have fundamental consequences, because it will knock out a raft of EU directives. There will also be funding consequences for non-governmental organisations and equality organisations with regard to equality issues. For example, we want to understand far more about what could happen to a substantial programme called the rights, equality and citizenship programme, which is running from 2014 to 2020 and has a budget of nearly €450 million.
As for more immediate concerns, I point out that, as things stand, we are still in Europe and subject to all EU directives. Yesterday we debated the positive gains in and around equality for women with regard to provisions on equal pay, maternity discrimination, shared parental leave et cetera. However, another aspect of Brexit is that it has fuelled previously articulated intentions to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 and replace it with a watered-down bill of rights. We have heard Theresa May talk about repealing the 1998 act and other UK Government ministers have spoken in the same vein, although the consultation on that has never materialised. Indeed, some UK Government ministers are on record as saying that they want to get out of the ECHR, which is abhorrent, given that it is the international baseline. As I have said, it is the floor, not the ceiling.
That is why I am determined to articulate far better what the ECHR and all our international treaties on human rights mean to people on the ground. Human rights are about protecting those with no power, not about protecting Governments or politicians. For example, people have used human rights legislation to challenge aspects of welfare reform, and it was also used with regard to compensation in and around the Mid Staffordshire hospital crisis. There are many practical examples of how people have used human rights legislation to advance and protect their interests, and I think that we all need to be talking far more about them. The Human Rights Act 1998 is part of the Scottish Government’s DNA and our founding principles, and we want to resist all the way any moves to remove it from what we are about and who we are.