Speaking ahead of a presentation at the UN’s 60th Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday, Liberation Scotland’s co-convenor Professor Alf Baird said the organisation, alongside campaigners Salvo, was hoping to put forward what he says is the reality of Scotland’s constitutional status.
“It was clear that no many people knew what independence actually meant and that included the political classes as well as the media, to a large extent,” said Prof. Baird.
“As a student of postcolonial theory I was able to understand that this is not unusual.
“Essentially what Salvo and Liberation Scotland have been able to do over the years is to develop a much more detailed understanding about what independence means and it really means decolonisation and liberation.”
The former Edinburgh Napier University professor, who was director of the institution’s Maritime Research Group before his retirement in 2016, said Scots had a “colonial mindset” that prevented them from seeing what he said was the “colonial reality” they faced.
He said: “A lot of the work in postcolonial theory is to do with psychology and most of it is done by psychologists because colonial powers normally work very closely with the psychological aspects, particularly cultural processes with dominating peoples.
“There is a colonial mindset here which automatically in many cases will refute any idea that Scotland is colonised, will refute any idea that the people are under oppression.
READ MORE: What to expect as we go to Geneva to cover Scottish ‘decolonisation’ campaign
“But closer analysis shows that oppression is obscured largely by the cultural assimilation process which is quite extensive in British colonies where the English language is dominant, where English literature is dominant and also the culture and symbols of the colonial, administrative power is dominating as well.”
At an event in the Palais des Nations, speakers including emeritus professor of Scots law Robert Black and UN special rapporteur on the right to development Surya Deva will give speeches on the case for “decolonising” Scotland.
Prof Black (below) has previously argued that the Acts of Union were a sham which concealed Scotland being “absorbed” into England.
Liberation Scotland and Salvo hope to have Scotland added to a list of “non-self-governing territories”, which they say would remove Westminster’s veto over a second independence referendum and also bypass the need for Holyrood to arrange one.
It is the process by which countries such as Cameroon, Somalia and Rwanda gained their independence.
To do this, the UN’s special committee on decolonisation must be convinced that Scotland is:
· Geographically separate from the “administering power”, i.e. has a border
· In possession of “distinct ethnic, cultural or linguistic characteristics”
· Denied a “full measure” of self-government
Prof. Baird said: “There’s no magic solution but I think this is a necessary process. It’s using the mechanisms of the UN, which was set up to end the imperial powers’ control over territories we might remember, it was set up to introduce self-determination and to decolonise and Scotland’s case was missed in the early stages and also misrepresented.”
He said that making this case on the international stage was “vital” and the Geneva intervention will mark the first time this has been done formally.
READ MORE: Top historian of nationalism weighs in on bid to ‘decolonise’ Scotland
“Independence is an international phenomenon as much as a national one, perhaps more,” said Prof Baird. “It’s the recognition by other countries about your sovereign rights and about sovereignty needing to be reclaimed.”
He added: “The UN provides the platform to present Scotland’s situation and also to go further, we’ve got opportunities for seeking member state support, perhaps also looking toward advisory opinion in the International Court of Justice and to look at it in that context, given that the court system within the power here, the administrative power, is locked into a particular way of thinking.”
The effort does not have the backing of the SNP, Scotland’s largest pro-independence party or the Scottish Government.
Liberation Scotland and Salvo consider both entities to be part of the “colonial” apparatus and Prof Baird characterised devolution replacing one “form of indirect rule” with another in the shift of power from the Scotland Office to Holyrood.
He added: “This is the people that is putting forward this alternative reality. It’s coming out of the people that don’t have any vested interests other than their own freedom.
“Essentially, the initial point is to put together the case, [show] that this is a valid case, it is an ongoing injustice. It is a very longstanding injustice, one of the longest injustices going and it’s one of the longest political hoaxes.”
