The following is an extract from the RSS Constitution:

RSS is a bottom-up organisation, which distinguishes it from all other pro-independence organisations which are top-down. The advantage of such a federal structure is that the power and decision-making is retained locally, while allowing communications and ideas to flow freely between the local and national levels.

Each unit of RSS is independent and autonomous, retaining its own money and making its own decisions. It does not take orders or instructions from the national level. It is connected to other RSS units and to the national unit by a common objective and a common route to achieving that objective:

• RSS’s common objective is Self-Determination and, if the People so wish, Independence.
• The common route is implementation in Scottish law of two UN-recognised Human Rights: direct Political Rights and Self-Determination. Implementing ICCPR, the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the UK in 1976 but never enacted in domestic law, will achieve both.

   

Political Rights: On 6^th January 2025 RSS launched a Petition which, once agreed by a majority of MSPs, will finally give real meaning to the term Popular Sovereignty (commonly referred to as Direct Democracy (DD) & Decentralised Direct Democracy (DDD)): Introduction of the right to Popular Initiatives and Referendums (ICCPR Art. 25) in the devolved law-making process.  You can sign the Petition here

The Petition will first be considered by the CPPPC, the Holyrood Petitions committee, at its meeting on 2^nd April 2025, and SPICe, the parliamentary research service, and ScotGov. have already published their official comments thereon (Drill down from the above Petition page, through “CPPPC consideration”).  RSS’s draft reply to these two official responses is already available and the final version will be published before the 19^th March 2025 deadline.

Self-Determination:  In its 4^th February 2024 report to the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), the Scottish Human Rights Commission stated: “The Scotland Act 1998 requires both the Scottish Parliament and Government to observe and implement all the UK’s international Human Rights obligations”.  The UNHRC made the same recommendation in its report of 3^rd May 2024: “The State party (i.e. the UK) should……ensure that all Covenant rights are given full legal effect in all jurisdictions that fall under its authority or control….”  If MSPs do not support the RSS campaign, recently launched by the ScotlandDecides.org blog, they will not be re-elected in 2026.