Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, for calling me to speak in this very important debate. As other speakers have said, it's 70 years since the universal declaration of human rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly, which gathered in Paris on December 10, 1948. And it was voted in by 48 votes to none with eight abstentions, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the chair of the declaration drafting committee, called it a Magna Carta for all mankind—and womankind, of course. And I think it's quite significant, actually, that one of the abstainers was Saudi Arabia, and when you think about human rights in relation to Saudi Arabia recently with the issue of the journalists and women's rights in Saudi Arabia, I think that's quite significant that they did actually abstain.

I'm very pleased that the leader of the house said in her address to us that human rights are in our DNA, because I think there is a tendency to think of human rights as maybe being something a bit distant from our ordinary everyday life, maybe something a bit intellectual, something to do with charters and conferences and people sitting around in important rooms and discussing human rights, but I think that what we have to do as politicians is bring home the fact that they are what absolutely affects us in our everyday life. And something like a staggering abuse of human rights then brings it home to us, which, of course, as has already been mentioned—the Windrush scandal. I mean, that was something, I think, that did absolutely illustrate to us all how this had been going—. This abuse of human rights had been going on secretly, quietly, nobody knowing, and these terrible things had happened to people who had contributed so much to our country. You're aware of human rights on occasions like that, but, obviously, it does affect us, all of us, in our daily lives.

I was very pleased on Monday evening to go along to a meeting organised by Helen Mary Jones, setting up for renewing the human rights cross-party group here in the Assembly. And I'm sure Helen Mary will probably speak about that later on if she's called. But I just thought that was a very good initiative, and I'm very pleased to give it my support. And we did have a speaker there from Just Fair, who I thought brought out some really important points. And one of the points that he did bring out was that it's so important that you make human rights part of our everyday experience.

And, of course, the leader of the house has already mentioned another group very close to my heart—the Gypsy/Roma/Traveller group, who are discriminated against on a daily basis. I think if you are a Gypsy/Roma/Traveller, and you go out and about your ordinary day, you accept discrimination on a daily basis. I think it is one of the last respectable ways of causing abuse. And that, I think, is a great task for the Government to try to redress that issue, and I know the leader of the house is doing that. But I think we have to make a huge effort. 

But, in any case, I think we have made progress in Wales. We have made progress on children's rights, with the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011, and it's been very important, I think, the consultation that we have had with children over many different issues. I'm particularly glad that we did consult children about Brexit, to ask them what they felt about Brexit, although I think, of course, we were mocked for doing that by some politicians. But I think it was so important because it's so important that equality and human rights protections are safeguarded and enhanced during the Brexit process and afterwards. So, I know that the Welsh Government will be vigilant about any loss of human rights that will happen during this process. I think it's also very important, because young people were denied the opportunity of taking part in the referendum—16 and 17-year-olds didn't have the vote—and, although, of course, we voted, their future was affected more than any of us. So, I think it was very important, for that reason, that we did actually consult children. And we do know that children are very concerned about human rights. I think Young Wales did a consultation with children, which showed that secondary school students were concerned about the environment, opportunities to study abroad, human rights and health and well-being, and young people, of course, have expressed in that consultation their frustration that they were denied a say in a vote that will affect their futures. 

There is a lot more to do, and I agree with the Equality and Human Rights Commission's recommendation in its report 'Is Wales Fairer?' that the Welsh Government should enact the socioeconomic duty, which would bring poverty and equality together and help tackle one of the biggest drivers of inequality in our country—poverty. So, I hope that is something that the Welsh Government will do, but I think it's obviously very important that we have to look at how that does fit in with the future generations Act.