A significant burden of air pollution deaths occur in Africa. In response, Africa is developing a first of its kind integrated assessment of air pollution and climate change that illustrates how the continent can achieve key development goals, provide clean air for its people and help the global fight against climate change and ecosystem degradation. We are at a point where we need to urgently increase the pace and scale of actions and this assessment makes an important contribution to do exactly that as it identifies development priorities and key actions that work on two fronts. That is how to reduce our high levels of air pollution now in the short term within the next decade and at the same time also reducing climate forcing emissions to make good on the Paris Agreement. The Africa integrated assessment of air pollution and climate change is led by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition in partnership with the African Union Commission, UN Environment Program and the Stockholm Environment Institute. It brings together scientists, policy leaders and practitioners working across Africa to consider the continent's rapid development and the associated air pollution challenges and climate risk. The African integrated assessment on air pollution and climate change will determine how development in Africa can proceed while limiting the negative impact on air pollution, on climate, on health, agriculture, environment, forestry and livelihoods. The assessment includes a focus on short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon or soot and methane. These air pollutants have a short lifespan in the atmosphere from a few days to less than a decade. These pollutants contribute to air pollution-related deaths, illness and lost work days and are powerful climate forces. The assessment will consider how cleaner measures in clean polluting sectors such as transport, household energy use, industry and waste disposal can deliver socio-economic and environmental benefits for the African population. The importance of the assessment to African polysumic cars was noted by the African Ministry of Conference on Environment or AMSEN in a decision that acknowledged the importance of short-lived climate pollutants and the need for assessment of the linkage between policies to address air pollution and policies to address climate change during its 17th session in Durban, South Africa in 2019. Africa is facing a serious challenge with air pollution that has not actually attracted so much attention because of lack of information and general terms for the policy and decision-making people. The increasing air pollution in the continent is beginning to manifest itself in the negative impact on human health, climate, agriculture and even to the extent that some of the ecosystems are adversely impacted. The cause of inaction in terms of air quality cannot be overemphasized because right now as we speak it's estimated that over 600,000 people die in Africa as a result of air pollution exposure. It has got adverse impact already on the GDP. On average, 4% of the GDP in Africa is lost because of air pollution. The situation has even been made worse by the COVID-19 impact. A number of cases have spiked due to exposure to adverse air quality The Africa Integrated Assessment of Air Pollution and Climate Change is an initiative which is aiming at addressing the issue of lack of information by providing cutting-edge science to the decision-making processes in terms of air quality management in the continent. The assessment will provide a very clear and practical roadmap for action which can be taken in collaboration with different stakeholders because tackling air pollution in Africa needs access to timely and scientific information and the engagement of all stakeholders. It is important that the people who are adversely impacted by the problem of air quality are actually aware of the situation because some of the component of air quality is not seen. When somebody does not see something, he does not appreciate the adverse impact it is likely to have on his health. So, impacting knowledge to the people who are adversely impacted is very key and the assessment process is going to generate this scientific information which can be directly communicated to the different stakeholders and those who are adversely impacted. At the 15th session of AMSEN in 2015 in Cairo, Egypt, ministers called for enhanced air quality monitoring and modelling and the need to develop an Africa-wide air quality framework agreement on air quality management in their declaration. This issue was further addressed at the 16th session of AMSEN in 2017 in Libreville, Gabo where ministers acknowledged the region was facing increasing levels of air pollution which has a negative effect on the environment, social and economic development as well as on human health and the well-being of the African population. Air pollution in all it forms a dangerous quality of life in many ways. Therefore, urgent action is needed to prevent the 7 million premature deaths that it causes every year. In Africa, this is a very acute situation. The most vulnerable segment of our population, for example, women and children are at a higher risk of contracting respiratory diseases because they are exposed daily to indoor air pollution from, for example, burning biomass from wood and charcoal for cooking and heating and also fossil fuels for lighting like paraffin. Exposure to outdoor air pollution, especially from burning plastics in dam sites and also burning agricultural residues, what sense this situation? This assessment by climate and cleaning coalition in partnership with the UNEP, Stockholm Environment Institute and the African Union Commission is very, very timely. It will inform our decisions on developing ecosystems restoration policies impactful development and also investments that will support Agenda 2063 and the global good.


Okay, hello everybody. Oops, let me click play here because now my screen is stuck. Okay, hold on, one moment. Ah, not letting me play the slides. Oh, there we go. Okay, hi everybody. My name is Josh Lim. I am the Wiki Society of the Philippines. I'm currently based in Madrid, Spain, which is the reason why you can see that it is actually nine o'clock. That's nearly 10 o'clock in the morning here. And I actually really wish I could have been there in Singapore. I usually give talks at Wikimania about topics related to the Philippines. So this year I look forward to sharing with you a little story about Philippine Diplomatic Missions on Wikipedia and how you can write them too. This is actually a project that I've been working on for more or less the last 10 years now. And it's really been an exciting journey, especially in the year since the pandemic started where I really started really writing about diplomatic missions on Wikipedia. So as you can see, the title is Wikipedia Diplomacy, precisely because it was through here that we really got engagement with the diplomatic community, especially with the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines and some of their diplomats in some of the missions around the world. This actually you see here in the first slide is the Philippine Embassy in Madrid, which was established in 1951. But let's get on with the show here. So I started writing Wikipedia articles about Philippine Diplomatic Missions in 2013. And this wasn't really a thing that just, I didn't suddenly decide one day I'm going to write about Philippine embassies and consulates. It just started off originally as a small project, initially to write about my time in Poland. I studied in Poland between 2011 and 2012, enjoyed my time with Wikipedia, Wikipedia Polska, for example, while I was there. And then when I came back from Poland, after studying, after integrating myself with the various Wikipedia communities in Central and Eastern Europe, I figured, you know, let's write about some things about the relationship between the Philippines and Poland. And so I ended up writing about this. This is the Philippine Embassy in Warsaw. This is actually not the picture that I took. The picture that I took is uncommon. So you can take a look at it there. This is what the embassy looks like as of, I believe, 2019. But it's been here since 2009. And so this article that you see here on the left, this is what the article originally looked like. It doesn't look like this anymore. And the reason for that is because from 2013, when I first started writing, when I first wrote this article, there was no template for how to write about diplomatic missions. And so there were various ways to write about different embassies and consulates. And in fact, you still see that, you still see that disparate way of writing about this type of article throughout Wikipedia. So for example, embassies of the Philippines are written differently from, let's say, embassies of the United States, embassies of Ukraine, embassies of Indonesia, which actually is one of the templates that I used for writing this article. So on September 24th, 2013, when I first wrote the article on the Philippine Embassy in Warsaw, my template for writing about Philippine diplomatic missions was really US and Indonesian embassies and consulates. And the reason for that is because at the time, those were the countries with arguably the most comprehensive or at least the most structured way of writing articles about embassies and consulates. And in fact, before this article was written, there were only articles about three other Philippine diplomatic missions. And so for context, we only had one-off articles and they weren't that good, to be honest. They were not particularly consistent. They were not well-referenced, nor did they have structured data that we could then import. Well, then again, Wikipedia wasn't really a thing. And it was only starting to become a thing in the early 2010s. And so these articles weren't really that good, to be honest. And which embassies and consulates, then, am I referring to? I'm specifically referring to these three missions. The image on your left, this is the Philippine Center. This is home to the Philippine Consulate General in New York. And actually, the Philippine Consulate General in New York City deserves to have its own article because it has a history. So for example, the Philippine Center, as you see here, this was not the original home of the Philippine Consulate General. Before the Philippine Consulate in New York was based in this building, it was actually based in a mansion that Emelda Marcos, the wife, the mother of the current president of the Philippines, and wife of the former dictator, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., bought this expensive house on Park Avenue.  And to make it look legitimate, they based the Philippine Consulate there. And so whenever Emelda would be in New York City, she would host lavish parties in that house. The property has since been sequestered and sold off and the proceeds return to the Philippine government. But right now there isn't even an article about the Philippine Consulate General in New York City. It's one of the projects that I want to work on. Because you have the article about the Philippine Center and it was actually written by a Wikipedia based in New York City. Following that, we have the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC. This article was written by a Wikipedia in DC and it was part of a project that they had on writing about embassies and consulates to the United States. So this article is not even particularly structured. It's one of the articles that I have not even touched. But I look forward to working on that as well. Currently it's just a long series of paragraphs about the history of the embassy. There's not much about the building itself. The building was built in the 1990s. And so there would be a lot of information about how this building came about. And then at the bottom is the Kudan. This is the former Philippine Embassy to Japan in Tokyo. This is now the residence of the Philippine Ambassador. And so for many, many years, the link Philippine Embassy of the Philippines comma Tokyo actually linked to this building because there was no impetus to write about Philippine embassies and consulates in Japan. And so not until 2021 when I wrote the article. Today, in fact, look, all the countries in blue that you see on the map here, these are countries with Philippine diplomatic missions, embassies, consulates, both, or in the case of Taiwan that you see there in light blue, the Philippine, it's the Taiwan, I'm sorry, it's the Manila Economic Office in Taiwan. So the countries in red that you see here, these are all countries with Wikipedia articles regarding their relating to their embassy or consulate. And much of this work outside of the three that I mentioned earlier were articles that I had written starting in 2013. So I wrote about the embassy in Poland in 2013. For several years, and I really do anything that I figured, okay, I'll start again. Wrote the article on the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv in 2018 when I was there for the Glam Wiki Conference. And then throughout the years started writing more about Philippine embassies and consulates and then really took off during the pandemic. And then countries in light blue, these are articles that I had started writing. So the Philippine embassy in New Delhi, the Philippine embassy in Brasilia, the Philippine embassy in Vienna. And then I look forward to writing more as time goes on. It really is dependent on the, it really is dependent actually on the resources that are available, especially online. Whoops. And in fact, now several of these articles have made it to the English Wikipedia as the UNO section, three consulates general and seven embassies. And so what we see here is that a lot, we try to promote these articles. And in fact, a lot of these embassies and consulates have very interesting stories to tell. So for example, the Philippine embassy in Baghdad, the diplomats there agreed, let's all, we will agree to a suicide pact.  We will die together if ISIS decides to invade the embassy at the height of the war between Iraq and the Islamic state in 2015 and 2017. The Philippine embassy in Berlin, one day the Senator Franklin Drillon said, wait a minute, why is the embassy on top of a supermarket? I see sausages, this is embarrassing. So that was quite funny. The Philippine embassy in Cairo, wait a minute, we put, we named the ambassador in 1960, but we have no idea where the embassy was actually established. Normally it's when the ambassador was appointed, so it's 1960, right? And then the Philippine embassy in Buenos Aires, it was the former building that since moved, it used to be a house, a hotel, a retirement home. A former Philip, a diplomat that was once based there, we actually removed all this information because he said it was embarrassing to the consulate. It's like, no, Wikipedia is not censored because he told me, oh, wait, it's not a brothel, so we should remove it. Yeah, no, we're not going to do that. I did not put that it's a brothel because there's no reliable source that points to that accordingly. And so a lot of these consulates and embassies have interesting stories to tell and these stories deserve to be put on Wikipedia. Therefore, since I actually started working on these articles that branched out to other languages too, I am an active editor on the Spanish Wikipedia and one of the few Filipino Wikipedia's have actually write in Spanish. And so we branched out into writing about articles in that language and mostly right now about embassies of the Philippines and other Spanish speaking countries and then the one in Bahrain, which is the most recent one that they wrote because someone decided to translate it. So moving on from that, I hope that this is something that will inspire other Wikipedia's to write articles about their diplomatic missions using the structure that I will elaborate below. So we follow a standard template for writing diplomatic missions of the Philippines. So there's always an info box. The info box should always have, it could be a template info box, diplomatic mission, which is for the English Wikipedia for the Spanish Wikipedia, it's Ficha, Mission Diplomatica, or something similar. The mission's name should always be in the language of the Wiki and the official languages of the sending and receiving countries. So here you see the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv has the name in English, which is an official language of the Philippines and the language of the Wiki, the name of the mission in Filipino, national language of the Philippines and the name of the mission in Hebrew, the official language of Israel. If there's a shield, which is normally the case with many countries, they have a special logo or coat of arms for their embassies or their consulates. It should be in the info box. And of course the picture of the mission were available. The lead paragraph, in this case, it's always the embassy of country in city is the diplomatic mission of the country sending the mission to the country receiving it. And then some small information, it was open in this year, it's located here, maybe near some major landmark. A section about the history of the embassy or consulate where one is available, whatever you can find in reliable sources. Usually this will be old newspaper clippings. And I think the Wikipedia library for giving the access to newspapers.org, for example, which has been a gold mine of information, particularly for Philippine diplomatic missions in the United States. And also the internet archives own library, which has been wonderful for this type of resource. And also a section on staff and activities. Normally it's the ambassador who they are, who they've been appointed by and when they were received by the host country. One thing that you might wanna know is that an ambassador is not an ambassador until their credentials have been received by the host country, meaning the president actually accepts the credentials from the ambassador. Usually this can be several months after their credentials have been received. So make sure to look at that accordingly at the minor dispute with an editor who says, oh, the Philippine ambassador to Indonesia is actually the ambassador because they were named as such by the government. But their credentials are not received until June of this year, even though they were appointed in September of last year. So something that you want to keep in mind. And then a couple of interesting things that the mission does. So for example, the Philippine embassy in Tel Aviv is actually the mission responsible for all the other ASEAN countries which don't have an embassy in Israel. So for example, if you're Malaysian, go to the Philippine embassy, they will help you as was the case in 2010. Occasionally, if there's a lot of information about the building itself, as I mentioned earlier, it would make sense to have a section about the Chancery, the building where the embassy or consulate is located. And that adds character and depth to the article more than just a brief mention of the history because this actually shows you that this mission is quite historical. So for example, there was a long history about how the Philippine embassy in Tokyo was built in Japanese war reparations or how the Philippine embassy in Berlin, they originally wanted to buy the property that where Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, wrote Noli Matangere, his seminal work. The building was not for sale, so they couldn't buy it. This picture actually was taken by Eugene Villar, Tea, who is a seam who's actually in the audience. So if you're looking for Filipino Wikipedia to interact with, I highly recommend you talk to him. Now, because there is no standard way of writing articles about diplomatic missions, the goal of this project is really to provide a comprehensive template that others can emulate for their countries because these articles deserve the care and respect that we can give them. These are representatives of our country abroad. And so if we're able to give them the care and respect that we can on Wikipedia, it actually helps elevate not just what people perceive of our countries, especially in Eastern Southeast Asia, but also how it also gives interesting information that people can then look back to. And in fact, this led me to getting a barnster on the English Wikipedia because people do appreciate the work that we put into these articles. People notice that, you know, oh, a lot of the articles on the English Wikipedia about diplomatic missions are quite stubby. So it's nice to see more extensive coverage. And so if we're able to really put in the effort to do the research required, a lot of this information is actually available online or you can reach out to the Department of Foreign Affairs of your country or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your country to get this information. And this is information that would be beneficial for anyone to know about. Let's say, if they want to know more about, oh, this country, I need to go to the embassy of this country in my city. They will very likely go to the Wikipedia article. It'll tell them where it is, what is the mission about, and more about the country and how they interact with the country that the embassy or consulate is located in. So that's the end of my presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And let's give our diplomatic missions the love and treatment that they deserve. I do only have three minutes left in my presentation. So in my presentation time, so I am open to any questions that you may have. And I will stop sharing my screen. I will briefly open. I actually closed Eventier. So I will check if you have any questions on Eventier. I will be able to answer them as well. Josh, Ramzi from Indonesia. Actually, Ramzi, long time no see. Yeah, long time no see. I really appreciate of phylo diplomatic nerds doing this all these. I'm just curious. I understand there is no freedom of panorama in the Philippines. And I understand that an embassy of a country is like its own country abroad. Are you concerned with the copyright status of these embassy photos that you took, all the excellent photo experiments? Actually, the worry there is not the Philippine lack of freedom of panorama. And I personally think we should have them. I know Johnny Allegre was talking about it yesterday. Actually, the worry was the country that's hosting the embassy. So the position of commons is that it doesn't matter if the country has freedom of panorama, the sending country. The receiving country has to have it too. So for example, the Philippine embassy in Jakarta, there was a picture. And they got that from a Philippine government image, which means it's public domain. But because Indonesia doesn't have freedom of panorama, Thomas said, sorry, it can't be there. I'm very likely going to upload it back to the English Utipedia just so there is a picture. But yes, freedom of panorama can be an issue in countries that don't have it. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, very welcome. I wish I could be there. Any other questions? Thank you very much, Josh. Thank you for your session. All right. Thank you very much. And I look forward to seeing all of you when the opportunity comes. Thank you for attending my presentation.


nd are understood to have significantly more capacity already within our legal system and I think it does better reflect international standards like other members I think it is important to look at what's happening elsewhere around the world elsewhere in Europe in other comparative legal systems but I think that can never be the only consideration I think it is important that our legal system does reflect the views and values of people living in the country and that they have confidence in changes to the legal system and also I think we have to listen to those within our criminal justice and other agencies because if they're not confident that they can deliver changes then it's all very well and good people in this Parliament arguing for them but it is remembering that sometimes what looks good in legislation what looks good in black and white on a piece of paper can actually make things worse in practice but we do think that it is important that most people would recognise that those under the age of 12 should not be simply labelled and treated as offenders for the rest of their life but that has to be balanced against a robust system that does tackle serious harm and in this bill we think that the right balance has been struck and that is why there will be broad consensus and there will always be those who argue that we should go further and faster but we've got to look at the evidence and I would refer any members who are in any doubt or anyone further afield watching these proceedings and what the Lord Advocate had to say when the committee took additional evidence at stage 2 that was very powerful and compelling and I think the committee was right I certainly was keen that the committee did take that additional evidence but having taken that additional evidence having indulged members of the committee who really wanted to push on these issues it then seemed somewhat odd to ignore what has been said so as I close very mindful of what victims will think and I'm pleased that my colleague Annie Wells will set out some of our thinking in that area in more detail thank you I call Daniel Johnson for up to 5 minutes thank you in some ways what Oliver Mundell said at the beginning of his remarks is right this is a moment where having dispatched the amendments has happened however what I would acknowledge is that we only get to this place through a great deal of collective effort so I would like to acknowledge that collective effort made by amongst others the Qualities and Human Rights Committee the independent advisory group on minimum age of criminal responsibility the Scottish Children's Reporters Administration but most importantly all the children and young people who so bravely shared their experience of what it's like to be a person of justice system and I think that we must have them at the forefront of our minds as we debate this bill this afternoon so at that outset I would like to state that Scottish Labour welcomes this bill agrees with its objectives and the balance it strikes and will be supporting it this evening this bill aims to find an appropriate balance between protecting children from the harmful effects of criminalisation and also ensuring that instance of harmful behaviour on 12 12 can continue to be effectively investigated and responded to appropriately but let's be clear and I heard much of what Alex called Hamilton said in the debating of the stage 3 amendments and I understand his frustration the reality is that it's 12 years since the UN committee on the rights of the child recommended that 12 be the minimum internationally acceptable standard is an invidious position that Parliament finds itself having had that update of that recommendation while this process was under way and it's one in some ways that I wish we weren't in however change needs to be handled carefully which is why I think that we need to stick to the age of 12 but we must be mindful that it's taken Scotland over a decade to comply with that and that's something that I think we should have of our minds so while Scottish Labour welcomes this overdue change to raise the age of criminal responsibilities from 8 to 12 we believe that this legislation does require clarifications that's why we were pleased that the Government supported the majority of our stage 3 amendments and again I'd like to place on the record my thanks for their constructive engagement through that and I think in particular the bill has now been significantly clarified regarding the places of safety and police powers these changes will ensure that a police station is only ever used as a place of safety when absolutely necessary and when adequate checks have been carried out these changes will improve the clarity and reassurance to our hardworking police officers who quite easily could be put in a very difficult and invidious position through the passage of this bill it will enable them to discharge their duties not just to young people but the wider community more confidently but I must also deal with that wider point of confidence Minister pointed to the required confidence that this bill, this act must have but the reality is when it comes to the police the Scottish Police Federation and the association of police superintendents to Scotland there is still a gap in that confidence and that is one that needs to be filled and the Government must bring forward certain clarification after detailed consultation on those because the reality is, as I detailed in the stage 3 amendments there are situations where young people cause damage or other acts such as graffitiing, vandalism theft from shops and if they haven't had prior contact with the authorities there is no reason to believe that they will continue with that behaviour I still am not clear on what powers will have to take that common sense approach of putting the hand on their shoulder and returning them home at least there is a doubt in my mind that there may be the possibility for those parents to complain I will give way in a moment at your last minute Mr Johnson okay so I would urge the Government to come forward and extinguish this ambiguity because it is a dangerous uncertainty those complaints even if it is for a period of time that this great area pertains those complaints could take a great deal of time to wash through the system also the Government must consider the interactions with other elements of law I think failure to provide this clarification will place our police officers in a very difficult position indeed and I think it's in a sense a shame that the Government has not exercised its right under rule 9.8 section 6 of the standing orders to send this back for further stage 2 I will be following up writing to the Lord Advocate asking for his views on both the status of these powers in conjunction with other elements of the law and indeed whether or not there is any question mark whether or not police officers could be charged with abduction if they return a child to home against that child's will where there are no further concerns Scottish Labour is committed to preventing the most vulnerable children and young people from being exposed to the harmful effects of the criminal justice system so the Government must bring forward clarifications prior to commencement thank you Alex Cole-Hamilton for four minutes please thank you very much the minister has used throughout the course of this debate words like radical and historic and bold this bill is none of those things and it is in fact a dismal day for all of us it's a dismal day for the Scottish Parliament it's a dismal day for Scotland's children and young people and I find it hard to put into words the anger and disappointment I feel at the missed opportunity in this legislation and the realisation that we are actually living in a far more socially conservative country than I had hoped the scales have fallen from my eyes so if you'll permit me I'll use the first part to lean on the words of somebody else and that is Lindsay Hanvidge who I referenced in the group around place of safety Lindsay said to our committee the first night I went into care was in May 2007 and we lived and social work was there when I went upstairs they told me that I, my brother and my sister were getting taken away from my mum I kicked off a little bit and I told them I did not want to leave my mum my mum was going to be left by herself they took my behaviour as harmful behaviour as I was just kicking off that is how it felt to me as if I was just kicking off for the sake of it they put me in handcuffs in my mum's house in front of her and my brother and my sister I was 13, my sister was 6 they took me out of the house I was not even dressed properly I remember having jammies on that that had a hole in the back I did not realise that they were the ones I'd put on but they still had me cuffed at the front and they were forcibly removing me from my mum's house I got my first charge that night when I got to the bottom of the close they were pulling me about the place I was quite a weak girl when I was 13 and I hit him it was just that I wanted him away I wanted to get back up the stairs when I was 11 o'clock at night I was not picked up until about half 7 the next morning I was taken to a children's home where my brother and my sister were they had spent the first night in a children's home I spent my first night in care in a prison cell locked up I had done nothing wrong it felt like I had done something wrong that was my first experience of being charged of being involved with the police and that was them taking me to a place of safety it did not work out for me that way we have failed we have failed Lindsay Hambridge and there is nothing in this bill that would have changed her story either the age at which she was charged or the incarceration in a cell as use of place of safety and I think it is an outrage in a stain on this Parliament's reputation that we have against the better judgment of the international community who intervened twice in the conduct of this legislation who intervened twice and were rebuked by the minister who said that we have some sort of sense of moral exceptionalism which does not frankly exist and yet we are found wanting in terms of the de minimis expectations of international precision minister I believe your government will come to regret the timidity that you have shown today the goodwill that you have and your party have built in laudable policy change in areas like the age of leaving care in other aspects of child protection will have evaporated after today after you did not heed the call of witness after witness organisation after organisation that said we had an international imperative to get to 14 how can we, if it's going to be five years before we get at the very earliest the opportunity to change this again waiting three years for a review and then the resultant legislation to pass how can we stand in judgment over countries like Russia or like China over their human rights abuses when they have higher ages of criminal responsibility than we do I do not believe that we should celebrate the passing of this bill you're clapping a deficient piece of legislation and failed ambition more children will suffer because of this inaction I hope it isn't another 80 years before we get to remedy that I will be voting for the bill tonight frankly because as I said in my opening remarks this government has presided over an age of criminal responsibility in its decade in office which is frankly medieval but I do not do so with any joy tonight we now move to the open debate can I warn everybody we're really tight for time you must come in at under four minutes and I may have to shave some time off the closing speakers so I call first of all Ruth Maguire to be followed by Mark McDonald Presiding Officer I strongly believe that raising the age of criminal responsibility in Scotland from eight to twelve is the right choice for Scotland at this time raising the age of criminal responsibility in Scotland from eight to twelve is a milestone on the road to making Scotland the best place for children and young people to grow up Minister Mary Todd's recent announcement regarding setting up an expert advisory group to consider the further challenges to changing the future is to be welcomed I want to acknowledge the passion, drive and expertise of those voices in 2012 and say that I accept that the job of Parliament is one of leadership particularly when it comes to equalities in human rights however children, communities and crucially victims should not be put at risk by rushing into changes without being certain that the responsible agencies are ready and leadership is also sometimes about acknowledging challenge and practical considerations for people on the front line victims, communities and professionals share an understanding of what works when a child causes significant harm and whilst we know that many of the children involved in harmful behaviour have often been subjected to trauma we mustn't forget that the victims of this harmful behaviour will often be vulnerable children themselves when we call for trauma informed approaches to addressing those engaged in harmful acts we must ensure that the same is true for victims I have recently written to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice regarding a five-year-old child in my constituency who is a victim of a very serious sexual assault perpetrated by a 13-year-old the response to him and his family has not been trauma informed indeed the actions of the authorities have added stress and additional trauma to an already intolerable situation I understand why the family does not feel like justice has been done I understand why they feel that the system has failed them victims must receive appropriate support that does not re-traumatise them and equally as importantly they need to have confidence that what happened will not happen again to them or to anyone else criminalising children does not work and does not guarantee a stop to harmful or offending behaviours in fact it's much more likely to lead to further harm however we must do more to hear the voices of victims and their families and in doing that we'll contribute positively to the power of work that's necessary that's needed to take the communities we represent on this journey with us I would ask the minister in closing to say a little more about how we can do just that and ensure child victims receive their rights their right to an effective remedy to the harm that's been done to them including confidence that the systems we have in place will ensure what happened to them won't happen to others increasing the age of criminal responsibility will not only benefit children and young people but Scotland as a whole it's a strong milestone on the way to making Scotland the best place for children and young people to grow up I'll be proud to vote for it this evening Mark McDonald to be followed by Annie Wells thank you a number of speeches so far have spoken about the nature of this legislation being overdue and I think it's worth to reflect the comment that the minister made about the length of time since the age of criminal responsibility was increased from 7 until 8 and during the period of that 80 plus year span all of the parties in this chamber with the exception of the greens have at some stage held the wheels of government and been in a position to be able to affect the change that we are now seeing to date so while it may be overdue and it may be something that needed to happen before to date I do believe the minister has been the one to take this forward and see it through and for that she deserves credit and congratulation and we should reflect on the journey that has taken us to this point I had hoped in the amendments that we might go further but we did not but I do believe that the minister's amendment 145 does afford a chink of light in relation to the possibility of future change however I do believe that that will need to continue, the pressure to continue whether from within the chamber or outside at some point in the future to ensure that that is seen through and I would also say that I hope that the minister would accept that some of the work around overcoming or beginning to overcome some of the technicalities which stood in the way of raising the age to 14 could perhaps be ironed out addressed and looked at before it gets to the stage of reviewing the legislation so that you could decouple those processes while the review of the legislation I think does need to give the legislation some time to take effect for it to be a positive and useful review the work to establish how to overcome those technicalities doesn't necessarily need to wait for that review to take place in order for that to be taken forward I also think that it's very important that when we look at the guidance that will be produced around police cell use and places of safety there has to be a robust analysis of that guidance and work needs to be very carefully undertaken good intentions have been expressed in this chamber but it's very important that those intentions translate firmly into the text of the guidance because at the end of the day it will not be the intentions that have been expressed in this chamber which will be followed by those who are expected to administer the legislation it will be the guidance that is produced to back it up finally, Presiding Officer I think that the process through which we have considered this legislation and indeed the debate gives us an opportunity to reflect on the wider understanding of the nature of justice I think that all too often in the debates that we have whether in this chamber or in wider society justice is often seen by some as a means by which to slake the thirst of vengeance and all too often we lose sight of the fact that justice delivered for victims is important but justice delivered for those who find themselves affected by trauma who find themselves offending at a young age as a result of that trauma is also important as well as part of this process because justice that they require in order to enable them to still realise a positive future as a result of interventions is just as important as part of this, I feel and that's why I think the approach that the Government has taken is correct the approach that's being taken in terms of future reviews correct and that's why I'll be happy to support this legislation in this evening at stage 3 Annie Wells, followed by Ian Gray Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer As a member of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee I've been following this bill closely from its inception and the evidence is persuasive that offending behaviour in children can have its roots in emotional trauma and to criminalise children under 12 causes more problems than it solves we therefore will be supporting this bill which also makes it a lot easier to understand at the same time however we want to stress that we will always put victims of crime first the Scottish Conservatives recognise that adverse childhood experiences can lead to offending behaviour and with Scotland currently having the lowest age of criminal responsibility or ACR in Europe we agree it should be raised from 8 the committee heard evidence that highlighted a large number of those under 12 who had offended had already been facing prior disadvantages and adversity in their earlier childhood it is therefore only right that this is taken into consideration consideration for the rights of the child however should always be balanced with the rights of the victim this is why the Scottish Conservatives have been clear that the ACR should not be raised higher than 12 and the age 12 as we've heard isn't just a random figure bear in mind that the age of criminal prosecution was raised to 12 in 2010 the bill is in many ways an attempt with children aged between 8 and 12 already prevented from prosecution in criminal courts I have also been clear of the need to have the public's backing and I do believe that an increase of four years is already a significant step the public needs to retain confidence that serious incidents will be dealt with appropriately so that victims feel supported and this is particularly important as we see Scotland's caution against raising the age higher than 12 and this was on the basis that the nature of children's actions and the prevalence of that behaviour changes as the age groups increase to 12 and above and this is why at stage 2 the Scottish Conservatives put forward amendments that would try and make information more readily available to victims particularly in cases involving a death and allow the Lord Advocate to play a continued role in cases where behaviour gives rise to wider public safety concerns we continue to hold the belief that the government needs to address the gaps identified in victim support at the moment the information available to victims is limited with community justice Scotland also expressing concern over how quickly this information becomes available it is vital for victims to know that action has been taken so that they know that harmful behaviour by a child has been taken seriously and this is an emotive bill and throughout this process I have tried to put myself in the shoes of families affected by serious and harmful behaviour at every step Deputy Presiding Officer this has been an extremely interesting debate over the last few months and to be part of it has been compelling and to be part of it has been great and it's been compelling to hear from all sides their views on raising the ACR and I want to put on my record my personal thanks to the committee Clark's witnesses and members of the committee who have worked so hard and been so passionate about this issue whichever way we look at this bill they need to have a wider discussion on prevention so that children do not find themselves in these unfortunate positions in the first place Ultimately I believe that the Scottish Conservatives have taken a balanced approach one that recognises the roots of time and emotional trauma with the rights of victims Iain Gray, followed by Gail Ross Thank you very much Earlier on today UI and a couple of other colleagues spent some time reflecting on the 20 years of the Parliament for a BBC documentary and we spoke then about being a new and modern Parliament and in all ways it was different one way in which it is, I think new and modern which we didn't talk about is that we are a Parliament whose work incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights and has done from the very beginning and indeed over 20 years we've gone beyond that into the active promotion of rights in Scotland and most notably the development of a system of rights based education and I think most of us will have been to schools and our constituency is to see them presented with the words as rights respecting schools and my own constituency in East Lothian two of these human rights defenders Hannah Richardson and Cameron Butchart from Windigo Primary School through their work with the Children's Parliament and the Streets Ahead Trenant project actually found themselves in Geneva presenting to a United Nations workshop on the rights of the child day and I know that similarly two young human rights defenders from elsewhere in Scotland are I think this week or next week giving evidence to the UN Committee on torture as well another initiative of this Parliament in its past 20 years of which we can be proud I think is the creation of the post of a children's commissioner one which didn't exist back in 1999 and one of the campaigns the current commissioner has prioritised is indeed the incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children and it is I think something of a failure a collective failure that we have not incorporated UNCRC given that the Parliament began with this idea of the incorporation of rights and in truth I guess the most egregious example of that in so many years the age of criminal responsibility has indeed been so low not just low but internationally low I know that the programme for government announced at the start of this session included a commitment from the First Minister to incorporate the principles of UNCRC and at her conference last week she committed to incorporate the United Nations Convention completely and that is all welcome but it's unfortunate then I think that we find ourselves in this position where the international minimum age of criminal responsibility shifted from 12 to 14 in the course of our legislating and really we should have been fleeter afoot I think our own lateness to this did mean I think in practical terms that a jump 14 was too much in one go although 12 alone would not have been enough so in the end I think 12 with a review towards raising that is probably the best in practical terms but truly this isn't our finest hour this really does need to be addressed seriously and not allowed to slip any further I don't think today as as dismal as Alex Cole-Hamilton said but I really think the minister over exit if she thinks this is a day of historic triumph we should be careful to be claiming to meet the gold standard in children's rights this bill takes us in the right direction but we should have moved further long ago The last of the open debate contributions is from Gail Ross thank you I would also like to add my thanks to those of other members to the many groups that have contributed to this process of developing the bill that we have before us today and the opportunity presented to us today will see vital work begin to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Scotland to 12 a step in the right direction that recognises the progressive direction of travel that we are on and whilst many have argued we should immediately be looking to increase the current age of 8 to 14 or even higher this bill does set in place that will enable future increases when the time is right I welcome the minister's announcement that a group will be set up to monitor how this can be done with everyone's safety, security and wellbeing to the fore and there will be plenty of people and organisations watching and I know the Scottish Government will bring proposals forward as soon as is practicable during the stage 1 debate I highlighted the different speeds that children develop and the need for us all to recognise how damaging it could be for a child to be held criminal responsible I believe that many of us have gone on a journey with consideration of this bill a journey which has made us reconsider the purpose of how we treat children within our judicial system and realising that young children who offend should be treated with a welfare based approach Do we simply wish to punish the youngest members of our society or do we want to adopt the approach required to protect our young people in some particularly challenging situations? We are not saying that every act committed by a child should be ignored but we can certainly do much better in both minimising societal harm and improving the life chances for all the young people involved including victims of crime This bill before us today has significant steps towards achieving those aims and by increasing the age of criminal responsibility to 12 we do need to look at raising it further to at least 14 to bring us into line with the minimum internationally recognised age as outlined by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child I made my opinion on this very clear during all stages of the process and that view has not changed I warmly welcome the commitment of the First Minister who last week announced her intention for Scotland to make sure that we are meeting the UN's gold standard on children's rights I look forward to the launch of the consultation which will outline how we will achieve this and ultimately look forward to the day that we incorporate the UNCRC into Scots law We all want Scotland to be the best place in the world for our young people to grow up This bill will help us to realise that goal Thank you Now move to the closing speeches and can I take this opportunity to remind members that if they are taking part in the debate they should be here for the entirety of the opening and the closing speeches and I call Daniel Johnson for up to four minutes please Thank you I always feel when you have to make that comment they are about to miss out so I'll give it a good go and indeed I'm going to begin with the words of Ruth Maguire because I think she's absolutely right in pointing out that we must be mindful of the benefits of this legislation not just the benefits to the young people themselves but to wider society because I think as Annie Wells I think very well illustrated the issue at the heart of this is that the young people's experiences of the criminal justice system can be the very traumatic events that lead to those adverse childhood experiences that puts them on that cycle that unavoidable consequences which fundamentally alters their life and the course of their life and sitting on the justice committee and having had a great deal of contact in the last year or so with the criminal justice system visiting prisons working with third sector organisations that work with people with experience of prison that reality is very clear and I think this is a positive step to preventing some of those people entering into that cycle so this is important, is welcome it is beneficial not just to those people but to wider society but I think Ian Gray is absolutely correct in his analysis in terms of we must be careful not to trumpet this as some great triumph yes this Parliament has done a great deal in terms of recognising rights putting rights at the heart of our policy making but as he pointed out that the UNCRC is very clear about the minimum age of criminal responsibility and this bill does fall short and I think we need to think with great care about how we move forward from here and we need to bring people with us we need to do it in a considered way in a one that makes things work I think that Alex Cole-Hamilton was absolutely right to read out the words of Lindsay Handridge because if in the end of the day that taking someone to a place of safety just feels like they have done something wrong if there is no difference in terms of experience regardless of what the law may or may not say then this will not have worked which I think does take us neatly on to I think the very well made point by Mark McDonald that this will really succeed or fail in terms of the translation of forward from the good intention that is very clear within this bill and how that is translated in terms of guidance in terms of the systems that are put in place the training making sure that what is practised in wider society the way that this bill is implemented is going to be absolutely key to preventing those adverse childhood experiences from reoccurring and simply not just being relabeled that is what we must take great care to and indeed I think this bill does strike that balance that the review looking at the age of criminal responses which is in better than this is correct having an independent reviewer I think is a strength of this bill and indeed some people have talked about the great store and weight that we've put in the children's reporter and children's panel system as potentially being exceptional and I don't think it is I think Scotland took a very brave and bold step forward in terms of implementing the co-branding principles many years ago but in so doing I think as we move forward we must protect I think the very sensible and robust structures that those people use and I do have an on-going concern about the children's reporter system and making sure that it does deliver on the intent with which it was created all those years ago but finally this does come down to confidence and indeed I think a great deal of what we do both within the criminal justice system and beyond it is about confidence confidence of people and our communities that the justice system will act in a proportionate way and keep them safe and confidence of the people who are within it that it will serve their interests and treat them fairly and give them opportunities to avoid the experiences that they might have encountered that brings in there and with that I will close the bill I am pleased to close for the Scottish Conservatives and confirm that we will be supporting the passing of the bill at decision time tonight The key issue that the bill seeks to address is that the minimum age at which a child can be held criminally responsible is currently eight and as many have pointed out it was set in 1932 and is the lowest in Europe but if it is not to be eight then what age should criminal responsibility be The bill's second principle is that the age of criminal responsibility should be 12 and the Scottish Conservatives are persuaded that that is the correct cut-off point As Annie Wells pointed out the age of criminal prosecution was raised to 12 in 2010 so children aged between 8 and 12 were already prevented from being prosecuted in the criminal courts and furthermore Police Scotland have cautioned against higher ages In the committee's report they said that the nature of children's actions and the prevalence of that behaviour changes as the age group increases to 12 and above I also find it persuasive that as Margaret Mitchell flagged up in stage 1 the number of incidents currently reported as involving under 12s offending is small and reducing and also as we heard earlier the law society point out that 12 and over already have a different status they can make will, consent to or veto adoption they have sufficient capacity to express views on future arrangements for their care instruct a solicitor and it's the basic age at which children start secondary school Finally it's important to note that as Oliver Mundell said 12 appears to be the publicly acceptable age that has both professional and public confidence and it's imperative that any change such as this can command the public's backing and Daniel Johnson and Ruth Maguire were clear we must take the public with us on this as Annie Wells said the public needs to retain confidence that serious incidents will still be dealt with appropriately so that victims feel supported and the minister said during the amendments earlier victims need reassurance and that harm is still meaningfully addressed and communities with us she's absolutely right and it is vital that when this change is made the Scottish Government reassures the public that harmful behaviour by under 12s will still be dealt with and it will be dealt with in a manner proportionately to the harm caused Presiding Officer I also want to pick up on something Oliver Mundell alluded to at the outset that we must monitor the act's implementation for unintended consequences and this is particularly important here because of the impact on police powers earlier today we debated amendments which have been raised as issues just last week by the Scottish Police Federation the implication is that officers dealing with children under 12 years old who are causing risk or significant harm to others but who aren't an immediate risk may be deterred from being able to look after them properly Daniel Johnson decided not to press his amendment earlier today and Parliament chose to reject it when I did but even had it passed I think it would have still left a potential gap so it remains a concern and possibly leaves open outstanding issues in relation to places of safety and a financial memorandum that may under state police implementation costs by over 6 million I heard the minister's reassurances but I also hear that the SPF and Police Scotland remain dissatisfied with the answers and I don't like having to make that call at stage 3 when trying to decide whether to pass what is in its core principle an important and necessary piece of legislation it looks to me at least possible that the Government may have missed something and the committee may have failed to have garnered all the information it needs to decide on the best drafting and if there is the remotest possibility that something has been missed it could restrict the police in the execution of their responsibilities my view remains that the precautionary principle mandates that it be put back for further examination and evidence taken by the committee so I was very pleased to hear all of Emdell's suggestion that the committee might be able to hear more and Daniel Johnson I thought gave a good legal route which could resolve this so I strongly hope the minister will take that council and I'd be grateful for her remarks on that later however it's vital that we implement these reforms because we've heard compelling evidence throughout that the current age of 8 for criminal responsibility is no longer sustainable and that 12 is an appropriate age at which to set criminal responsibility including on the basis of agency, legal precedent and public acceptance so for that reason I again confirm the Scottish Conservatives will support the age of criminal responsibility Scotland Bill at decision time tonight now call Marie Todd to wind up the debate for six minutes please minister thank you if we were debating a bill today to create a minimum age of criminal responsibility I doubt very much if we would choose for that age to be 8 but I don't think we would be agreeing unanimously to make it 14 or 16 either so that the bill to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 gets it right I have to say I agree with Oliver Mundell who quoted the Lord Advocate's evidence was absolutely compelling in the extra evidence sessions at stage 1 and I have to say I'm saddened to say it but I think Alec Cole-Hamilton weakens his own arguments by ignoring that evidence and by comparing us in Scotland to countries with a human rights record like China we've achieved I think I've heard enough this afternoon we've achieved a consensus in this Parliament on this issue that was unimaginable excuse me minister can we stop with the rudeness please thank you very much it's inappropriate to shout from behind from a sedentary position Mr Swinney I'm dealing with this Mr Cole-Hamilton I would appreciate it if you would not talk back to the Presiding Officer thank you minister Presiding Officer we have achieved a consensus in this Parliament on this issue which was unimaginable to most a few years ago we have clearly been on a long journey to do the right thing on this issue but along the way this government has reformed policy law and practice in 2011 we raised the age of criminal prosecution to 12 in 2015 we published our first youth strategy justice strategy and we continue to advance the whole system approach to preventing and addressing offending by young people we've seen a remarkable reduction in proceedings against young people including a reduction of 81% in the number of children being referred to the children's reporter on offence grounds we spent the last 10 years doing the right thing for Scotland's children and young people and I want to pay tribute to all of the ministers who have helped to do so including Adam Ingram Kenny MacAskill Angela Constance Michael Matheson Aileen Campbell and Mark McDonald I also want to thank the Equalities and Human Rights Committee members for their detailed scrutiny of the bill and to everyone who provided written and oral evidence excuse me minister I'm finding it quite difficult to hear the minister if you could be a bit quieter please minister I want to express my gratitude to the members of the 2015 advisory group which set out strong and clear recommendations on raising the age and the measures needed to sit alongside that reform these gave us a robust route map to follow as shown by how closely their recommendations are reflected in the bill that we seek to pass through law today and I particularly want to thank the bill team and other government officials for their dedication and diligence this has been a truly cross-government initiative and I thank everyone for their thoughtful input and expertise throughout but most of all I want to say thank you to all of you in this chamber the way in which we have conducted our discussions on the bill and reached consensus on crucial matters demonstrates to me and importantly to our constituents that we have all been determined to do the right thing that's a strong message to send to our children and young people and whilst we have made significant progress in recent years this bill represents a vital missing bit of the jigsaw I don't think that that jigsaw is yet complete or else Parliament would not have agreed to undertake a review the operation of the act generally nor to consider the future age of responsibility of criminal responsibility and I have already announced an advisory group that I will establish this summer beginning work on that and I would refer Mr Cole-Hamilton to the evidence given by Anne Skelton again in those extra evidence sessions where she said it would be an option to at least make clear in the pending legislation a future intention to raise the minimum age that is what we have done no thank you I know that some are concerned that because we have not locked down the minimum age of 12 we could go back to 8 so let me be absolutely clear as long as the SNP is in government there will be no going back the age of criminal responsibility in Scotland will never be below 12 again what I have sought to do is achieve the right balance this legislation the plan to implement it and the plan to review it all strike the right balance that is the right approach for Scotland at this time but there is momentum behind this reform and ambition for Scotland's children in preparing for today I revisited what children and young people told us at various stages of this bill process including in Inverness I took part in one of the consultation events held on our behalf by the children's parliament just be thoughtful said a nine-year-old imagine if you stole a suite and you couldn't get a job because of it a 14-year-old suggested that at the age of eight some kids don't understand right from wrong and the police should understand the background of the child and believe that every action is caused by a situation in their life on what happens in childhood another reminds us that people change over the years so it shouldn't follow them forever and finally from this 12-year-old we are all human treat us the same as you would treat others presiding officer it was Nelson Mandela that there can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children today I hope that parliament will support this bill and show our children and young people that we are committed to treating them with dignity respect fairness, compassion and humanity I am very proud as the minister for children and young people to move that this bill be passed Thank you very much and that concludes our debate on the age of criminal responsibility Scotland Bill The next item of business is a committee announcement called Julian Martin convener of the environment, climate change and land reform committee to make an announcement on the report on its new inquiry into the report of the committee on climate change Julian Martin As convener of the environment, climate change and land reform committee on its future plans and what is the biggest environmental and societal challenge that we face which is climate change particularly in the light of developments last week The committee concluded its consideration of the climate change bill and reported it stage 1 in March however before the committee moves to the amending stage of the bill we agreed to consider and report on the advice on climate change targets from the UK Committee on Climate Change or the CCC on 2 May The advice, published in light of the Paris agreement and the IPCC special report released in the autumn of last year recommends that Scotland should now set a target for net zero emissions of all green house gases by 2045 provided that UK-wide ambition is raised to net zero by 2050 In our stage 1 report we recommended that the bill should reflect the most ambitious targets set out in the advice from the CCC and a revised climate change plan be delivered within six months of royal assent of the bill Therefore we welcome the Scottish Government's speedy response to the CCC advice On the same day as the CCC advice was published the Government lodged a package of amendments to the bill and the First Minister committed to update the climate change plan in line with our schedule recommendations Those amendments have agreed at stage 2 would implement the CCC's advice by setting a target date of 2045 for net zero emissions of all green house gases and increasing the levels of the 2030 and 2040 interim targets to 70 per cent and 90 per cent reductions respectively Increasing our climate change ambitions offers clear potential for innovation jobs, the economy the environment and for the wellbeing of the people of Scotland and beyond so we welcome this Government's quick and decisive action on this We also recommended in our stage 1 report that the bill's journey through Parliament will be able to accommodate thorough and detailed scrutiny of the CCC's advice Therefore we plan to hear evidence from the Committee for Climate Change next week and then from the Scottish Government before hearing from two panels of stakeholders to explore their response to the CCC's advice the impacts of that advice and their views on the Scottish Government's response Our committee will then produce a report drawn from these sessions before moving into the amendment stage As all members of our committee have agreed, we need to raise our ambitions to tackle what is the single greatest threat to our existence on this planet and what is the most significant intergenerational justice issue of our day With the CCC's timely advice and the Government's swift response we welcome the opportunity to explore how we do that in the coming weeks Thank you very much We're going to turn now to decision time and there's only one question to be put as a result of today's business Motion 17169, in the name of Marie Todd on the Age of Criminal Responsibility Scotland Bill, be agreed and because this is an act we should cast our votes Members should cast their votes now The result of the vote on motion 17169 in the name of Marie Todd is yes, 123 there were no votes against there were no abstentions the motion is agreed and the Age of Criminal Responsibility Scotland Bill is passed on to members business shortly in the name of Bruce Crawford but we'll just take a few moments for some of the members and the minister to change things


President Vladimir Putin has received the second shot of a Russian COVID-19 vaccine. The Kremlin said last month that Putin had received the first shot without disclosing details or providing photographs. It has not said which of Russia's three vaccines, the most well-known of which is the Sputnik 5 that he has received.