Motion: Respect Your Life, Not a Knife

Respect Your Life, Not a Knife

Lodged by Andrew Welsh Members' Business Motion 46 supporters

The motion

That the Parliament notes that 27 November 2006 is the sixth anniversary of the tragic death of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, a young immigrant from Nigeria who moved to the United Kingdom with his sister and his mother, while his father stayed behind, in order to make better lives for themselves, and who three months later was murdered in London, England, on his way home from his local library; conveys its deepest sympathies to his surviving family and congratulates them on ensuring that this young man’s legacy lives on in the Damilola Taylor Trust, a not-for-profit organisation that has launched a campaign to reduce knife violence by getting secondary schools to encourage students to sign a pledge wall stating that they will not carry weapons; agrees that the goals of the campaign, namely to commit young people not to carry weapons and to demonstrate to those who do that the majority of young people do not want to carry weapons, are both laudable and practical; congratulates local organisations in Scotland, such as the Community Alcohol Free Environment (CAFE Project) initiative in Angus and other local organisations that are trying to bring the campaign to Scotland, and considers that the Scottish Executive should offer its full assistance and support to encouraging the spread of this community-led initiative to schools throughout Scotland to spread the “Respect your Life, Not a Knife” message.

Supporters (46)