Chamber and committees

How interested will you be in the findings in our final report?

What did you make of the SPCB’s consideration of costs? Off the top of my head, I think that the cost of the commissioners is about 12 per cent, which is top-sliced off the SPCB’s budget. We do not have an estimate for what the figure would be if all the new proposed commissioners went through. However, given that it would be roughly double, we could say that that would take the cost of commissioners up to 24 per cent of the SPCB’s entire budget. What are your reflections on that? Do you think that that is acceptable or sustainable?

To what, then, do you attribute the cultural underpinning?

I do not have the exact quote in front of me, but when a former MSP who had originally proposed the establishment of a commission gave evidence to us, they were less enthusiastic about the idea now than they were when they proposed it. They suggested that the establishment of a commission can perhaps be about creating a sense of activity to give the illusion of progress. That speaks to me of a culture of being seen to be doing something, rather than one of a relentless focus on outcomes.

What are your reflections on the culture of the creation of commissioners, in the context, perhaps, of the numerous other public bodies that we have?

Good morning, Mr McKee. Thank you for attending today. You are the Minister for Public Finance, and I think that everyone can agree that the constraints on public finance are deeply significant. That has been one of the key issues that has driven the committee to look at the commissioner landscape. Given your role as Minister for Public Finance, what leadership do you intend to set in the commissioner landscape when you relate it to the issues around public finance?

What I am hearing is that you sound really quite relaxed about the current commissioner landscape. Is that true, and are you equally relaxed about the proposals for extension?

Okay, so—

Is trying to make any change in this area akin to having a circular firing squad? Government might not want to be seen as interfering in the commissioner landscape, the SPCB made its view clear last week that the dealing with the area is a role for Parliament, and members will continue to advocate. When you consider the significant blockers from vested interests, politicians, civil servants, Government and the media, might the net effect be no change and might we carry on doing what we have always done and getting what we have always got?

This period of industrial action has clearly been difficult for Scotland’s colleges, yet we must all retain our focus on outcomes for students. With that in mind, how can the post-school education reform agenda support Scotland’s colleges?

I thank colleagues who have stayed for the debate, which is at an atypical time after decision time on a Thursday.

On to the serious matters. Let me start by saying that, if you are raped in Afghanistan, do not report it. You will be accused of adultery, and you will face public flogging or even stoning to death. If you are a woman or young girl and need the protection of international human rights, do not live in Afghanistan, where every right has been trashed. If you are a girl over the age of 13 in Afghanistan, you are now denied the right to a school or university education. If you are a women’s rights activist, you face the wrath of the Taliban.

According to Genocide Watch, in a publication from December 2023,

“The Taliban have arrested many women’s rights activists such as Julia Parsi. These women were on the front lines, fighting against inequalities. Today they are tortured and raped by the Taliban.”

They are tortured and raped for daring to promote the rights of women. Therefore, it is to the Julia Parsis and the oppressed women of Afghanistan that I dedicate this speech.

Members will know that I frequently raise concerns about the rights and needs of women in Scotland, but we cannot just believe in the rights of women at home. International human rights cannot just be for the affluent west. I cannot claim first-hand knowledge of what life is like for the women of Afghanistan, but I know that they need their voice to be heard and acted on, and I know that the international community has not stood with the women of Afghanistan as it should.

I will remind members of the context. I give thanks to David Lloyd Webber, the United Kingdom managing director of the human emergency response non-governmental organisation, Emergency, for much of the following detail.

Afghanistan has been affected by violent conflict for more than 40 years. Since the 2021 Taliban takeover, the humanitarian crisis has deepened, an inheritance of the long war, poverty and corruption. The already weak institutions have faced the impact of natural disasters, resulting in a fragile social fabric. International sanctions and the freezing of Afghanistan’s international assets abroad have put extreme strain on a country that relied on international aid for 75 per cent of public finance prior to the latest Taliban takeover.

It is the work of NGOs such as Emergency that is critical in the provision of health services for women and children. Despite the heroic efforts of many, by 2022, 10.8 million Afghans lacked access to basic primary healthcare services. As of October 2022, 4.7 million children and pregnant and lactating women were estimated to be at risk of acute malnutrition. For women, being separated, widowed or divorced is linked to a decreasing ability to access care because of Taliban rule.

Amidst that situation, imagine that you are a young girl or woman. You are now denied the right to attend school or university. You are also denied the right to work in most sectors of the economy and society. However, in those few areas that you are allowed to work in, such as healthcare, you can no longer be given the educational opportunities that enable you to realistically aspire to become a nurse, a doctor or any profession allied to the health sector. Since more recent decrees, you are not allowed to work in the wider non-governmental organisation sector, which provides critical support for women and children. If you need to travel any distance from home, you are expected to be accompanied by a mahram—a male chaperone. If you venture from your home alone and unaccompanied, you run the risk of being harassed or beaten by the Taliban’s so-called morality police.

Since the takeover, the Taliban has introduced not one but 50 decrees that directly curtail the rights and dignity of women. We are talking about a systematic attack on the rights of every girl and woman.

As a United Nations report from earlier this year pointed out,

“the Taliban’s vision for Afghanistan is founded on the structural denial of women’s rights, well-being and personhood.”

According to Samira Hamidi, an Afghan activist at Amnesty International,

“In the past two and half years, the Taliban has dismantled institutions that were providing services to Afghan women.”

Last year, the deputy of the Taliban Supreme Court said that the court had issued 37 sentences of stoning and that four people had been buried alive in a wall.

The situation is getting worse—there has been further growth in violence against women. In setting out the ways in which women can be punished, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, stated in an audio message that was broadcast on 24 March this year:

“We will flog the women ... we will stone them to death in public”.

What a flagrant violation of international human rights laws, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

As Safia Arefi, who is the head of the Afghan human rights organisation Women’s Window of Hope, said:

“With this announcement by the Taliban leader, a new chapter of private punishments has begun”.

She went on to say:

“Now, no one is standing beside them to save them from Taliban punishments. The international community has chosen to remain silent in the face of these violations of women’s rights.”

I will not remain silent, and I ask this Parliament not to do so either.

Thanks to Westminster economic mismanagement, businesses across Scotland, including in my constituency, Falkirk East, are facing pressures, including extra costs and red tape due to Brexit. What assessment has the Scottish Government made of the impact of the United Kingdom Government’s new post-Brexit border checks on business in Scotland—checks that are costly, unnecessary and supported by Tories and Labour alike?