Racist hate crimes are treated more seriously than homophobic ones
The Scottish Executive set up a Working Group on Hate Crime in 2004 to consider the most appropriate response to crime based on hatred of social groups. However the Executive then rejected the Working Group's clear recommendation to extend the definition of hate crimes to include homophobic attacks or those provoked by disability.
This means that hate crimes based on sexuality or disability will be subject to less serious sentences than those provoked by race or religion, which courts consider to be 'aggravated'. Scotland is the only part of the UK to make this distinction, at a time when recorded homophobic crimes and incidents are increasing sharply.
Physical assault is illegal, except against one particular group
In Scotland, the law currently allows adults to administer "reasonable chastisement" to children. In 2003, the law was changed to prohibit delivering blows to the head, shaking or using an instrument to punish youngsters. However, it still left children as the only members of society who can be legally hit.
A third of the member states of the Council of Europe now give children equal protection and many more plan to act soon. Fourteen have abolished all corporal punishment, including Austria (1989), Denmark (1997), Finland (1983), Germany (2000), Norway (1987), Romania (2004), Sweden (1979) and Ukraine (2004).
Many people oppose an outright ban on smacking as they fear it would lead to thousands of parents going before the courts. However, in Sweden, a complete ban has been followed by a decrease in child assault prosecution rates, lower rates of violent offending and reduced incidents of violence, including bullying, between children.
Adoption agencies nearly allowed to discriminate against LGBT couples
The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act, passed by the Scottish Parliament in December 2006, was progressive in that for the first time it opened up the adoption system to same-sex couples.
However this measure was opposed by some religious groups and in response the Scottish Executive indicated that adoption agencies would be allowed to opt out of providing services to same-sex couples. Although this opt-out now seems to have been undermined by new equalities legislation at Westminster, which takes precedence, the principle that services should be allowed to discriminate against certain groups goes against basic ideas of equality.
from Amnesty International