4. Debate: International Human Rights Day

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:18 pm on 12 December 2018.

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Photo of Leanne Wood Leanne Wood Plaid Cymru 2:18, 12 December 2018

Diolch. I move the amendment. 

As we celebrate 70 years of the adoption of the universal declaration of human rights, it's important that we examine the threats to human rights that currently exist. So, our amendment is timely because, as has already been said this afternoon, just this weekend we saw yet another example of how there are political movements that seek to reverse the human rights protections that we have. A Member of this institution was a speaker at a pro-Yaxley-Lennon march in London, and used that platform to echo an anti-Semitic theory that the French President was an agent of a foreign power. This was a march where those attending wheeled a hangman's noose and called for the Prime Minister to be hung in response to the Member's speech. This, of course, in a climate where an MP was murdered in recent history for campaigning for remaining in the European Union.

I want people in this Chamber to compare and contrast what has happened to the organisers of that march, and think about what the consequences would have been had there been a march of British Asian people shouting death threats at MPs. It's likely that such a march would have resulted in several arrests and the speakers would be looking at convictions for offences under anti-terrorism legislation and lengthy jail sentences. Or what if this march were where people were protesting about inaction on climate change? Would we have several undercover police spying on those attending, with a licence to pursue deceitful sexual relationships in the course of that work? Instead, the main organisers are likely to continue picking up lucrative salaries from the wealthy individuals who have been financing their political movements and enjoying the freedoms that they would deny to others.

Compare and contrast the way the British state has treated far-right political movements and other political movements and you will see why our amendment in the name of Plaid Cymru is needed this afternoon. Another example, of course, is the way that anti-terrorism legislation has been used to convict protestors in Stansted who tried to stop people being deported to face torture and death as part of the UK's actual immigration policy. This all takes place within the context of Brexit, of course; Brexit itself being a political project financed by the wealthy who seek to water down the protections available to workers, environmental regulations and the role of the European Court of Justice in holding Westminster Governments to account when they violate human rights.

The Scottish Government is going to be ensuring that Scottish law has a framework for protecting human rights written into all aspects of law, and my colleague Siân Gwenllian has had an encouraging response from the Welsh Government when calling for something similar here. So, I'd be interested in an update from the Welsh Government on your thinking on that area.

Seventy years on from the adoption of the universal declaration of human rights and it's important that we renew our efforts now at protecting and enhancing those rights from those political forces that want to take them away.