Glasgow Human Rights Network Bulletin 23 May 2011

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1. Events

Scotland Launch of Amnesty International Annual Report 2012
Thursday 24 May 2012, 10.00 - 11.30am MWB Business Exchange, 9-10 St Andrew's Sq, Edinburgh, EH2 2AF (on corner of Rose St).

Amnesty publishes an annual human rights report which gives an overview of human rights concerns in countries around the world.  Our launch will summarise some of the key themes that have emerged in this year's report.  We will be joined by Syrian human rights activist, Mounir Atassi, who will talk about the human rights situation unfolding there.  Our event will also mark the end of Amnesty International's 50th anniversary celebrations.  So do join us for the cutting of the cake! 
If anyone would like to attend, please email shabnum.mustapha@amnesty.org.uk or call 0131 341 5336.

Live Webcast of UK Universal Periodic Review
Thursday 24 May 2012, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Perth 

The human rights record of the United Kingdom will be put before the United Nations’ Human Rights Council under its process of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) this Thursday May 24 in Geneva.  Members of the Human Rights Consortium Scotland (HRCS) will be hosting live webcasts of the debate which begins at 8am in Geneva. However, a realistic 8.30am viewing start is scheduled here and at the three Scottish venues:

  1. Engender, 1A Haddington Place, Edinburgh EH7 4AE  - Email: Karen@engender.co.uk   Tel: 0131 558 9596 
  2. CRER, 78 Carlton Place, Glasgow G5 9TH - Email: jatin@crer.org.uk   Tel: 0141 418 6530 
  3. Centre for Rural Childhood, Perth College UHI, Perth PH1 2NX - Email: info@migrantsrightsscotland.org.uk  Tel: 07770 674788 

To accommodate the early start, coffee and croissants will be available. A facilitated discussion will follow the webcast from 11.30 to 12 noon.  Anyone wishing to attend should register with the individual venue hosts ASAP.  They will then be given details of final arrangements for that venue. 

The HRCS and its members have engaged with the UPR process since last November, entering submissions and sending delegates to make statements before UN Geneva missions at a pre-session in April.  The live webcasts are a further opportunity for HRCS members, other civil society organizations and those interested in the role of human rights in Scotland and the wider UK to increase their participation in this important assessment of the human rights conditions for all who live within UK jurisdiction. 

The UPR process is a relatively new and unique Human Rights Council procedure in which all 192 UN Member States have the whole range of their human rights records reviewed by other States. Its aim is to hold States to account for human rights violations, and to increase international visibility of countries’ human rights situations using a cooperative and fair process. Each country is reviewed every four years, with the UK’s first review in 2008.  

Briefing papers on the process and submissions made by Scottish groups and the HRCS will be available at webcast venues. You may wish to look at them in advance: 


Carnegie Lecture in International Relations: Andrew Linklater - “Violence and Civilization in the Western States-Systems”
Monday 28 May 2012, 15:00-17:00, Adam Smith Building, Room 916

Martin Wight – one of the leading members of the ‘English School’ approach to international relations - suggested that the modern states-system possesses an ‘international ethic’ that did not exist in classical antiquity.  A related standpoint can be found in the writings of Norbert Elias, and specifically in his comment that what has come to be known as genocide produces levels of moral indignation today that did not exist in the ancient world.  Those observations exist alongside claims that very little has changed in world politics over the centuries or millennia.  International relations is the ‘realm of recurrence and repetition’ according to Wight.  Elias maintained that what changes most are the methods of killing and the numbers of people involved.

This paper considers apparent tensions within Wight and Elias’s perspectives on world politics.  The argument of this paper is that important resources for advancing that inquiry exist in process sociology.  They are to be found in three inter-related concepts: the ‘scope of emotional identification’ between people, the ‘We/I’ balance in different figurations, and idea of the ‘social standards of self-restraint’.  Together those concepts can be used to develop understandings of the relationship between violence and civilization in different systems of states.  Does the modern states-system possess an ‘international ethic’ that did not exist in classical antiquity?  Are people today shocked by forms of violence such as genocide that did not arouse moral indignation in classical antiquity?  Have the fundamentals remained the same?  How are any differences to be explained?  Those are key questions about civilizing processes in international systems that await further exploration.

For full details please see the event poster: 120528 Linklater Seminar Flyer 


2. News

EHRC & SHRC Film: Being part of Scotland's story under the UN Disability Convention
The Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Scottish Human Rights Commission have launched a short animated film to raise awareness of the UN Disability Convention in Scotland.  The UN Disability Convention is an international agreement about the rights of disabled people.  It was drafted by and for disabled people around the world after decades of campaigning.  The film features a day in the life of a disabled person, as they experience these rights - the rights to education, independent living and freedom of expression.

The UN Disability Convention makes it clear that disabled people are holders of rights not recipients of welfare and that disability can include physical disabilities, mental health, learning disabilities and sensory impairments. The UK Government, including Scotland, has been a party to the Convention since 2009.  The Convention can be used to interpret both the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act.

The film has British Sign Language and captioning.  It was illustrated by Ko Lik Films and produced by Glasgow Media Access Centre.  The film is free to download and distribute from either: