Plenary, 30 Jun 2004

Meeting date: Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Official Report 358KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. The first item of business, as always on Wednesdays, is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Cathy Ratcliff, programmes director of Mercy Corps Scotland.

Normally, time for reflection is led by a religious leader. I do not represent any religion; I represent something that might be called a creed: the worldwide creed of humanitarianism.

The humanitarian sector has several codes of conduct that spell out the creed of humanitarianism. A very recent code, for example—produced in 2001 by many agencies, including my own, Mercy Corps Scotland—is called the "Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response" and is commonly known as the Sphere standards. It states its belief like this:

"We reaffirm our belief in the humanitarian imperative and its primacy. By this we mean the belief that all possible steps should be taken to prevent or alleviate human suffering arising out of conflict or calamity, and that civilians so affected have a right to protection and assistance."

The charter's three principles are: the right to life with dignity; the distinction between combatants and non-combatants; and the principle of non-refoulement, meaning non-repatriation of refugees who would face torture, death or imprisonment if they returned home. The first and third of these—the right to life with dignity and the principle of non-refoulement—are familiar to the Scottish Parliament with regard to people in Scotland. The second—the distinction between combatants and non-combatants—is, fortunately, not something that the Scottish Parliament has to grapple with in a Scottish context.

There are, of course, several humanitarian agencies headquartered in Scotland—for example, VETAID, Just World Partners and Mercy Corps Scotland, which I represent today. They are all supported by the Scottish public. Of course, some of the many aid workers working to preserve these humanitarian principles are from Scotland. A Scottish connection can pop up in strange places too: on a visit to Zimbabwe in January, I was intrigued to find that the large pots that we had bought locally for cooking lunch for hungry schoolchildren had "Falkirk" embossed on them in large letters.

Humanitarian agencies, their staff and their staff's families take risks and make sacrifices, because they believe in the humanitarian creed and want to try to ensure that humanitarian principles are respected for people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and other places in turmoil. As we mark this week the handover of power from the coalition to the Iraqi Government, let us reflect on the aid workers trying to deliver the right to dignity in Iraq. Let us reflect also on the Iraqi people—so greatly affected by conflict and calamity—and wish them and their country well. Their immediate situation is difficult. May they come soon to a point where they have no need of humanitarian assistance.