A FORTNIGHT ago I was privileged to host an exhibition by the artist Robert McNeil in the Scottish Parliament.

“Witness,” his collection of works, is a powerful, moving and sometimes unsettling reflection of his experiences in Bosnia.

Painting is something of a second career for Robert, as his working life was spent in forensic science.

And it was in that role he joined a United Nations delegation to Bosnia, charged with gathering evidence of the Srebrenica massacre.

What he witnessed had a profound effect on Robert, like it would us all.

The mass graves, the human destruction.

Srebrenica has become a byword for mankind at its worst.

Robert saw this at first hand.

He was there in 1995, tasked with identifying the mangled, broken bodies discarded in mass graves.

Such efforts continue to this day, with some families still waiting to hear about the final resting place of their loved ones.

The toll that harrowing work would take is simply unimaginable and Robert was not immune to the effects.

He found his dreams haunted by the brutality he witnessed.

And so he turned to painting as a release.

Art morphed from a passion to something more cathartic; an outlet through which his emotions could be channelled.

His wife Kathy bought him an easel as a retirement present and Robert didn’t look back.

The results are as arresting as they are poignant and I was delighted to host an exhibition of his works at Holyrood.

I know colleagues from across the political spectrum stopped to speak to both Kathy and Robert and such support is much appreciated.

This time last year I travelled to Srebrenica and saw for myself the painstaking work going on to move past the genocide which took place there.

I was joined on that trip by the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Wallace of Tankerness and since then my MSP colleagues, Labour’s Jenny Marra and the SNP’s Mike Russell have travelled there too.

As a representative on Remembering Srebrenica’s Scottish board (an honour I share with Robert McNeil), I am keen to see that this cause is brought to greater attention of both the parliament and the country - without political differences getting in the way.

The First Minister joined us at a memorial service last year and the message is out that the people of Scotland stand with those scarred by the atrocities that occurred in Srebrenica.

This, we mustn’t forget, was the single greatest genocide perpetrated on European soil since the end of the Second World War.

And for a continent that after the Holocaust said, “never again," Srebrenica serves as a stark reminder that evil still lurks among us.

Robert is now planning to auction some of his works for charity and I’d encourage you to keep an eye out for more information.

Glasgow based, Robert encapsulates many of the characteristics that make this City great –compassionate, internationally focused and driven by a sense of what’s right.

I was truly privileged to welcome him to parliament and play a small part in helping his important work reach a wider audience.