We welcome this inquiry into human rights, and, as somebody who took part in the fourth Assembly’s Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee’s inquiry into the future of equality and human rights in Wales, I welcome the fact that you wish to follow up on that. I wonder if you could just comment, given that, obviously, equality and human rights are both critically important, but are often interpreted as different things, although interrelated—. I wonder, therefore, given the dialogue so far, the extent to which you’re going to focus on human rights specifically, or the extent to which you’re also going to be looking at the broader equality issues to which many of those rights apply.

You make reference, understandably, to the UK Government proposals to replace the Human Rights Act 1998 with a British Bill of rights, and we share your understanding that the Attorney-General appears to have announced a delay, as the Government focuses on withdrawal from the EU, although we note that, in August, the UK justice Secretary did confirm the UK Government’s continued intention to go ahead with this. The proposal, I understand, is that the Bill of rights proposed will ensure that Parliament is the ultimate source of legal authority, and the Supreme Court is supreme in the interpretation of law, and to put the text of the original human rights convention into primary legislation. I wonder to what extent will you be giving attention to this, and how the areas that Wales would wish to safeguard will be safeguarded whilst addressing what some have described as ‘mission creep’ in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. You’ll be aware the European Court of Human Rights was long established to enforce the convention’s terms, but it wasn’t until 1998 that binding jurisdiction of the court, and the right of individuals to take a case to Strasbourg, became necessary for countries and states signed up to the convention. And these developments happened at the same time as the UK brought forward its own Human Rights Act.

Will you, therefore, give attention to the living instrument doctrine, adopted by the European Court of Human Rights, to expand the convention’s rights into new areas beyond those that the framers of the convention had in mind when they signed up to it? Obviously, there’s concern that some decisions appear to overrule democratically elected Parliaments, and overturn UK courts’ application of convention rights.

Again, will you give consideration to the impacts of the requirement for UK courts to take into account rulings of the Strasbourg court when they are interpreting convention rights, which means problematic Strasbourg jurisprudence is often being applied in UK law, and, also, whether the current UK Human Rights Act undermines the sovereignty of Parliament and democratic accountability to the public?

Moving on from the specific proposals UK Government has as they might impact in Wales, earlier this year, the annual human rights lecture in Wales was delivered by the Reverend Aled Edwards, known to most of us as the chief executive of Churches Together in Wales, Cytûn, and the secretary of the Interfaith Council for Wales. He discussed the experience of asylum seekers, migrants and refugees in Wales and across the world, relating this to the protection and promotion of human rights. He asked what role can the Welsh organisations and individuals play to help protect the human rights of asylum seekers, migrants and refugees in Wales and elsewhere. Could you confirm whether an answer to that question might be something that you would be seeking to address?

Similarly in that context, last week I hosted the Sanctuary in the Senedd event with the Welsh Refugee Council, recognising cross-party support in Wales for Wales to become a nation of sanctuary, but recognising that more needs to be done by both society at large, people, and public authorities, to turn the aspiration into a reality. And, again, will you give consideration to their seven steps to sanctuary, intended to move Wales forward on its journey to becoming a nation of sanctuary?

As I referred to yesterday, earlier this month we saw the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, on the third. In Wales, the United Nations charter on the rights of disabled people was incorporated into the Part 2 code of practice under the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. This was based on implementing the social model of disability, which wasn’t actually in the Act itself, recognising that people are disabled not because of their impairments, but because of the barriers that they encounter, and that society has a duty to remove barriers to access and inclusion for them, by working with them to identify and understand those barriers. Again, would you given consideration to this and its implementation, where it’s apparent—certainly from my casework, and, no doubt, many other Members’—that many public sector bodies perhaps are struggling to understand how that should be implemented, by engaging with disabled groups, advocates, access groups, before decisions are taken, rather than after the money is spent?

I’ve almost concluded. I wanted to refer to older people. Human rights have particular relevance for older people, who may find themselves in situations where they experience infringements to their human rights later in life. There are few more basic human rights, as Age Cymru state, than that of being protected from violence or exploitation, and older people must not be placed at risk of abuse or neglect. How, therefore, do you respond to their call for agencies to work together to safeguard individuals, to uphold an individual’s fundamental right to be safe, and to support those who’ve experienced abuse or neglect, and also their concern about the lack of human rights protection for people who self-fund their care services, which has become an issue of concern, where all people in care—older people—must have equal protection from abuse and poor treatment? I suppose, in this context, if you can confirm that you will be taking the evidence that they have certainly shared with me and, no doubt, many others.

Very finally—[Inaudible.]—a report was produced based on the human rights round-table discussion held by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales and the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, with 22 organisations represented, including those bodies, Stonewall Cymru, Mencap, Disability Wales and many others. They made a series of recommendations on a way forward that could help take forward human rights in Wales—to develop a human rights narrative, as they said, that sets out that human rights are for everyone and that they can also be used to improve services and explore how we approach non-devolved issues also in terms of human rights. So, again, could you confirm that you will draw on that piece of work to inform the evidence that you gather? Thank you.