The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) today visits Edinburgh to hear the views of a range of stakeholders in Scotland, including the Scottish Parliament’s European and External Affairs Committee, the Scottish Youth Parliament, legal experts and human rights campaigners.

The visit aims to raise awareness of the Committee’s work and encourage involvement in their future inquiries.

The JCHR is a joint committee of the House of Commons and House of Lords. Its remit is to scrutinise government policy and legislation on human rights, including the response to judgements of UK and European courts on human rights issues.

The Committee is currently undertaking an inquiry into the use of drones for targeted killing and is expected to launch an inquiry into the Government’s proposed UK Bill of Rights in the near future.

Ahead of the visit, Committee chair Harriet Harman said:

"We are pleased to be in Scotland to meet with the lawyers, campaigners and officials who we hope will make a valuable contribution to our future inquiries. The foundation of our work is well informed evidence provided by those with first-hand experience of the subject. It is particularly important that we build links here so that our reports give full consideration to the impact of human rights policy on the whole of the United Kingdom, including the devolved nations and independent legal systems within it."