Candidate for the 2014 Euro elections

I have much experience of working in international organisations while being accountable to the public – and it is a mixture I like very much. After 2014, I hope Scottish voters will ask me to answer to them, as their elected MEP.

Candidates across Parties have been criticized for being ‘male, pale and stale’. I think I offer diversity and a varied and relevant professional background outside career politics.

Here is what I do now

Since 2002, freelance researcher, evaluator and translator (on human rights in post-Soviet space)

Here is what I have done

Previous employer: Council of Europe, Human Rights Directorate (Russian Federation & Ukraine) 1996 to 2001 Programme Advisor and Head of Sub-Region
Previous employer: EC & UK Charities Aid Foundation 1994 to 1996 Director of Tacis NGO Support Unit, Moscow helping the new Third Sector in Russia get on its feet.
Previous employer: UN Human Rights Commissioner 1993-1994 Field Advisor to Special Rapporteur on ex-Yugoslavia, Mr Tadeusz Mazowiecki. I monitored violations of human rights in Bosnia Herzegovina, during both the Bosnian-Croat and the Bosnian-Bosnian civil wars.
Previous employer: Amnesty International, International Secretariat 1978 to 1992. I was the researcher on USSR, then Head of the new Moscow Office – which was AI’s first presence in the post-Soviet bloc at that time.

My interests, hobbies, achievements and positions held

Tai Chi, Music and photography. Member of UK Society of Authors & UK Translators’ Association. Registrar of Marriages for Quakers in SE Scotland, and Manager of Venue 40 Fringe Festival Venue. PEO Leith Walk SNP Branch

Professional bodies and Trade Union membership

Since 2002, membership of UK Translators’ Association, and UK Society of Authors. TGWU member from 1978 to 1992.

Education

St Andrews University, Fife, Scotland 1971 – 1976
1st Class MA Honours Degree in Soviet Political Sciences

Scholarships. Awards. Research

1975 British Council Scholarship to the USSR
1976 Departmental Prize for Russian
1976 James Steuart University Prize for Economics

2000 BBC World Service Best Short Story Prize, for “The Weather Station”

***

Taken from Marjorie’s website as an SNP candidate for the 2014 elections