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Humanist Society Scotland in 2026: The Year Ahead

January 27, 2026

What has 2026 got in store for the humanist movement in Scotland? With Holyrood elections looming and a new parliament starting in May, we’ve got work to do. Here’s the lowdown on our key campaign areas.

Assisted dying

Our most important campaigning area this year. Liam McArthur’s assisted dying bill passed its Stage One vote in May last year, and several notable amendments were introduced into the bill at Stage Two. These include raising the age of eligibility from 16 to 18 and strengthening the offence of coercion, as well as obliging ministers to set up training schemes on administering and regulating assisted dying medication.

A Stage Three vote on the bill is now looming, with a date in Spring 2026 a certainty. With the Stage One vote going in our favour by 70 votes to 56, we can’t afford to back away from campaigning. We are working hard behind the scenes with our colleagues at Dignity in Dying to convince every possible MSP to back this historic humanist legislation.

An assisted dying rally outside Holyrood on the day of the stage one vote, May 2025. With Humanist Society Scotland and others. — RALLY FOR ASSISTED DYING STAGE ONE VOTE, MAY 2025. PHOTO BY JACK DONAGHY.

Learn more about our assisted dying campaign

Religious observance

We are spearheading the campaign to give pupils in Scottish schools the right to opt themselves out of compulsory religious worship. The government is currently pushing a religious observance bill through parliament, but it fails to provide opt-out rights, in spite of these being in line with the UN convention recently adopted into Scottish law.

Stage Two of the bill was completed just before Christmas 2025, but an amendment to introduce opt-out rights for pupils was rejected. We hope to bring this important amendment back to the table at Stage Three, so that every child’s freedom of expression and right to their own beliefs is respected at school.

A hand holding a hard copy of our Preaching is Not Teaching report outside the entrance to the Scottish Parliament. — DELIVERING OUR PREACHING IS NOT TEACHING REPORT TO MSPS, AUTUMN 2025

Learn more about our campaign to end compulsory religious observance

Decriminalising Abortion

Having successfully campaigned alongside Back Off Scotland for the introduction of Buffer Zones around abortion clinics, we are now working to properly decriminalise abortion in Scotland as part of the Let’s Change the Act campaign. At the moment, abortion is only decriminalised by exception, leading to impractical and often intrusive procedures for women and pregnant people.

We recently concluded our work on the advisory board to an expert group looking into the steps needed to achieve decriminalisation. With the group’s report published we move to the next phase of our campaigning as part of the Let’s Change the Act umbrella group. We will press for an act of Scottish parliament that formally decriminalises abortion and a new, rights-based model for abortion care.

Learn more about our campaign to decriminalise abortion

And that’s not all

We’ll also continue to campaign for the removal of voting rights from unelected religious representatives on local education committees. We will continue to call for the replacement of religious observance in Scottish schools with an inclusive ‘Time for Reflection’ model. We will push to end the scandal of women being forced to travel to England for abortion care. And we will campaign alongside our colleagues at Equality Network to end anti-LGBT+ conversion practices.

Following the Holyrood elections in May, the newly-elected Scottish parliament will provide an opportunity to redouble our efforts on these core issues of Scottish humanism.

Learn about all our campaigns

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