Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Official Report 806KB pdf

Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. The first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Ms Jennifer Buchan, who is a celebrant of the Humanist Society Scotland.

Good afternoon everyone, and thank you, Presiding Officer and members of our Scottish Parliament, for the opportunity to speak to you today.

Sixty-eight years ago this week, on 10 December 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris. The declaration recognises that

“the inherent dignity and ... the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family”

are

“the foundation of freedom, justice and peace”

in our world.

For me as a chaplain, a parent and a humanist, the two most significant words in that sentence are “human family”. As an entire race, each one of us has the right to lead a safe and dignified life, no matter who we are or where we have come from.

When we are born, we are not born into a world of equality and, as a humanist, I believe that everything that can be done should be done to level the playing field. Each individual, no matter their sex, nationality, culture, language, colour or sexuality, those with a religious faith and those of us with none, should be treated with kindness, tolerance and respect, and encouraged to live useful and fulfilling lives.

I was asked, “Why are you bringing up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Tuesday? Sixty-eight years is not a significant anniversary.” The anniversary is not important—the declaration is.

As a global society, we are going through a period of upheaval and change, and we have been told that the world in which we all live has entered a “post-truth” era. For reasonable and rational people, that is not reasonable or rational and we must prioritise the truth. We must look to the document, which was written following the realisation of the worst atrocities committed against mankind, and which was drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of our world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not open to misinterpretation, and so, perhaps, before making any decisions that affect ourselves, our families, our communities and our planet, and to ensure that we are definitely doing the right thing, we should give it a read.

Maybe we should take a few minutes to print it off and pin it above our desks or stick it on our fridges—to make it a document that we and our families are truly familiar with, because we take notice of it every day. Maybe, in a post-truth era, we should be looking at actual truth for us and the whole of our human family. It is universally agreed that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace, and we should all be familiar with every single word of it.