Every year on 23 August, the world observes the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. We remember the victims of the slave trade and commemorate its abolition.

History 

The colonial empires of Western Europe were the main benefiters from the transatlantic slave trade. The trade transported people, mainly from Africa, in inhumane conditions to work as slaves in the colonial settlements.

The night of 22-23 August 1791 saw the beginning of an uprising in Santo Domingo, in modern-day Haiti and Dominican Republic. The uprising in the French colony inspired the Haitian Revolution. It also played a major role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Therefore, the United Nations (UN) decided to commemorate this day as the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

Significance 

The day is marked to remember and honour the victims of the slave trade and the systemic racism they endured.

The results of the Scottish Parliament Election 2021 are in…

The SNP has won with 64 seats in the election. The figure marked one short of a majority, but one more than they won back in 2016.

The success of the Scottish Greens, who won eight seats (an increase of two from 2016) means that there is a pro-independence majority between the two parties.

The Scottish Conservatives remain the party in opposition with 31 seats while Labour is in third place with 22. The Liberal Democrats have lost a seat and now have four.

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. All over the world, people come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality.

Marked annually on March 8th, International Women’s Day (IWD) is one of the most important days of the year to:

• celebrate women’s achievements
• raise awareness about women’s equality
• lobby for accelerated gender parity
• fundraise for female-focused charities

The campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is ‘Choose To Challenge‘. A challenged world is an alert world. We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world.

From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge.  Raise your hand high to show you’re in and that you commit to choose to challenge and call out inequality.

Interested in making a difference to climate change?

The ‘Climate Hot Seat’ is an online event, scheduled for Friday 9th April, which has been organised by young climate activists from across Scotland and will see party leaders in Scotland quizzed on environmental issues. You can sign up to attend the event here. 

As well as attending the event, young people across Scotland have the opportunity to put their climate and environmental questions to party leaders through an open call for questions. The deadline for submitting questions is 9am on Friday 26th March 2021.  You can submit questions here. 

The Climate Hot Seat – The Warm-Up event

There will also be an opportunity to join young climate activists and expert speakers to learn more about five key environmental areas with experts on Friday March 12^th at the The Climate Hot Seat – The Warm-Up event. This event will be hosted online and you can sign up to attend the event here.

The young climate activists group said: “Addressing climate change has never been more important than now.”

Fairtrade Fortnight brings people together across the UK to share the stories of the people who grow our food and drinks. mine our gold and who grow the cotton in our clothes: people who are often exploited and underpaid.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us more than ever how interconnected we are globally. In Fairtrade Fortnight 2021, the focus is on the growing challenges that climate change brings to farmers and workers in the communities such as Kenya, Ethiopia and Honduras.

To get involved:

You can take part in the ‘Choose the World You Want’ youth exhibition in Fairtrade Fortnight 2021.

Create your vision for the world you want, for the planet and everything on it. Share your artwork, poem, prose or film for a chance for your work to be exhibited in the online Youth Exhibition at the ‘Choose the world you want’ festival between 22 February and 7 March 2021. Email your vision masterpiece to schools@fairtrade.org.uk with the subject line CHOOSE THE WORLD YOU WANT stating your name and age  in the email. Submit your vision by March 1 2020.

Watch here: Change the world through your choices on Vimeo

“May your choices reflect your hopes and not your fears”

– Nelson Mandela

In June 2015, the Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Bill was passed. This made it legal to allow 16 year olds the right to vote in Scottish elections.

Welcome To Your Vote week is a campaign to help new voters firstly understand that they can now take part in the democratic process, and secondly help them know how to take part. The main focus is on registering to vote for the Scottish Parliament Election which takes place on 6th May 2021. Voters must be 16 by this date and the deadline to register to vote is midnight on 19th April.

To register to vote, visit gov.uk/registertovote

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27th January each year. This is a time to remember the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Holocaust Memorial Day is a time when we seek to learn the lessons of the past and recognise that genocide does not just take place on its own – it’s a steady process which can begin if discrimination, racism and hatred are not checked and prevented.

Scotland’s Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) Ceremony 2021 has been organised as a virtual ceremony. The ceremony will be premiered online at 2pm on 27 January 2021. The ceremony features testimonies from Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich, as well as the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of survivors from subsequent genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia and Cambodia. You can watch the Ceremony on YouTube or Vimeo:

• Watch on YouTube
• Watch on Vimeo

Be the light in the darkness.