LIKE most of my SNP colleagues, I believe that our political representatives should be accountable to the electorate and so I do not approve of the…
colleagues, I believe that our political representatives should be accountable to the electorate and so I do not approve of the way in which the House of Lords is selected rather than elected.
That’s what the United Kingdom Supreme Court found at the end of last year. Their decision was based on evidence about the general human rights situation in Rwanda, the adequacy of Rwanda’s current asylum system and Rwanda’s failure to meet their obligations in a similar agreement regarding asylum seekers with Israel in 2013.
Since I last wrote about the Rwanda policy, I have visited the country for myself in my role as chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights . The committee will report on our visit in due course, so these are just my personal reflections and conclusions on the visit. When the JCHR considered the UK Government’s original agreement with Rwanda and the Illegal Migration Bill, we expressed concern that the policy could be seen as outsourcing the UK’s obligations under the Refugee Convention to another country.
A 137-page country information note on human rights in Rwanda, prepared by the UK Government’s Home Office and updated in January this year, collates sources including the US State Department and Human Rights Watch setting out serious shortcomings in the protection of human rights in Rwanda. On LGBT rights I think Rwanda is where Britain was 50 years ago. Yes, unlike many other African countries, homosexuality is not criminalised but there are no statutory rights for same-sex attracted or trans people and no specific antidiscrimination laws. According to NGOs we met on the ground, LGBT people face stigmatisation and discrimination in what is quite a conservative society.
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