Scottish Catholic Observer

The parliamentary officer for the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland has criticised the publicly funded Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for launching a campaign designed to pressurise politicians into legalising ‘gay marriage.’

The EHRC launched their campaign ahead of the Scottish Parliamentary elections on May 5 with Kaliani Lyle, Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland commissioner, claiming ‘same-sex couples in Scotland continue to be denied access to marriage itself’ and ‘the new Scottish Government will have the opportunity to deliver fair and equal marriage choices to all.’

John Deighan (above), the Church’s parliamentary officer in Scotland, said the organisation was degrading the good name of human rights campaigners.

“The great endeavours of human rights advocates are unfortunately on the verge of being undone as human rights has become a battle ground where some campaigners see the benefit of capturing the prestigious term to wrap around their political aims,” he said. “It is very sad to see that the government funded group the Equality and Human Rights Commission has become a partisan player in human rights campaigning.”

Mr Deighan went on to say the commissions campaign was foolish and poorly thought out.

“Their decision to back the so-called ‘Equal Marriage’ campaign is an ill-judged one which places them at odds with fundamental human rights positions established, most notably, with the launch of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights,” he said. “Both these documents clearly recognise that it is men and women that marry and in fact the declaration recognises that the family, as the fundamental unit of society is entitled to protection from society and the state. The present campaign is fundamentally dishonest because it aims to redefine marriage and family.”

He added that Scottish society needed to re-evaluate just what human rights meant in the modern age.

“Our society is badly in need of an objective and measured assessment of human rights and equality issues especially as we see the crushing of religious freedom when views are held not to be in keeping with politically correct diktats,” he said. “There is little hope of that if the very institutions which our government have created to give advice on human rights are now pressure groups intent on imposing the views of the social elites who have worked to redefine human rights to suit their lifestyles.”