Nicola Sturgeon has used Worldwide Ladies’s Day to challenge an apology to the 4000 individuals who have been accused of witchcraft centuries in the past.
The First Minister mentioned the convictions and executions, largely of ladies, had been an injustice on a “colossal scale”.
Campaigners have referred to as for a pardon and a public apology over witch-hunts that came about between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
Addressing MSPs, Sturgeon mentioned: “Earlier than this parliament proper now's a petition demanding a pardon for the greater than 4000 individuals in Scotland, the overwhelming majority of them girls, accused and in lots of instances convicted and executed for being witches below the witchcraft act of 1563.
“Those that met this destiny weren't witches, they have been individuals, and so they have been overwhelmingly girls. At a time when girls weren't even allowed to talk as witnesses in a courtroom they have been accused and killed as a result of they have been poor, totally different, susceptible, or in lots of instances simply because they have been girls.”
She added: “It was injustice on a colossal scale, pushed at the very least partially by misogyny in its most literal sense: hatred of ladies. The pardon the petition requires would require this parliament to legislate and in future this Parliament could select to take action.
“However within the meantime, the petition additionally requires an apology. In spite of everything, these accusations and executions have been instigated and perpetrated by the state.
"And so right now on Worldwide Ladies's Day as First Minister on behalf of the Scottish Authorities, I'm selecting to acknowledge that egregious historic injustice and lengthen a proper posthumous apology to all these accused, convicted, vilified or executed below the witchcraft act 1563.”
She added: "Acknowledging injustice, irrespective of how historic, is vital. This parliament has issued, rightly so, formal apologies and pardons for the newer historic injustices suffered by homosexual males and by miners.
"We're at the moment contemplating a request for a proper apology to girls whose youngsters have been forcibly adopted."
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