Chamber and committees

Under our second agenda item, we will take evidence on an affirmative Scottish statutory instrument. I refer members to paper 1. I welcome to the meeting Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, and Simon Stockwell, head of the family law policy unit of the Scottish Government.

I invite the cabinet secretary to speak to the instrument.

Good morning, and welcome to the 14th meeting in 2023, in session 6, of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. We have received no apologies.

Our first agenda item is a decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take in private item 4, which is consideration of our draft annual report, and item 5, which is discussion of our future work programme?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you, cabinet secretary. No member of the committee has indicated that they wish to ask questions or make comments, so we will move straight to agenda item 3, which is formal consideration of the motion for approval of the affirmative instrument. I invite the minister to move motion S6M-08951.

Motion moved,

That the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee recommends that the Forced Marriage etc. (Protection and Jurisdiction) (Scotland) Act 2011 (Application to Civil Partnerships and Consequential Provision) Order 2023 [draft] be approved.—[Shirley-Anne Somerville]

Motion agreed to.

I invite the committee to delegate to me the publication of a short factual report on our deliberation on the affirmative SSI that we have considered today. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

That is helpful. I was thinking about the right to work, which not all asylum seekers and refugees have.

Dr Webster, you talked about the participatory process, and I would like to start off by discussing that a little bit further and drilling into it. It would be interesting to hear how you think the participatory process should be approached. I listened carefully to Professor Miller on the cross-cutting issues, including putting lived experience at the heart of all this. I come to you first, Professor Miller, and then I will bring in your colleagues.

The second item on our agenda is to take evidence on minimum core obligations with a focus on recommendations from the national task force for human rights leadership. I welcome to the meeting Professor Katie Boyle, chair of international human rights law, University of Stirling; Alan Miller, professor of practice in human rights law from the University of Strathclyde and also co-chair of the national task force for human rights leadership; and Dr Elaine Webster, reader in law, also from the University of Strathclyde. You are all very welcome.

We will ask you a few questions as we go on, but I first invite Professor Katie Boyle to make a few opening remarks.

Thank you. For my final question, I am going to go for Professor Miller, but if either of the other witnesses feels that they need to chip in, please indicate.

We have talked about non-legal routes but how might courts judge cases, given that we have difficulties in defining what the scope of minimum core obligations might be? Will courts have sufficient experience or skills to do that? What does the system need to provide for them to be able to do their job?

Do you want to respond, Professor Miller?

Thank you very much. It has been a very interesting and informative session, and it seems quite fitting that we have ended by talking about dignity. On behalf of my colleagues, I thank the panel for their contributions.

Yes, please continue.