Equally Safe

– in the Scottish Parliament at on 28 November 2017.

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Photo of Kenneth Macintosh Kenneth Macintosh Labour

The next item of business is a debate on motion S5M-09205, in the name of Angela Constance, on making Scotland equally safe.

Photo of Angela Constance Angela Constance Scottish National Party

Violence against women and girls is one of the most devastating and fundamental violations of human rights. It has to stop, and we all have to take meaningful action to stop it.

This debate marks the annual 16 days of action to tackle gender-based violence around the world. The theme of this year’s 16 days is leave no one behind, which I take to mean two things. First, no women or girls should endure any form of gender-based violence, and we need to ensure that we include every part of our society in our efforts to end such violence. Secondly, that we all, in this Parliament and in our society, have a responsibility to take action to end violence against women, and it is time for everyone to realise that we are collectively responsible for eradicating violence against women and girls and the underlying attitudes and inequalities that perpetuate that violence. We must work together and we must leave no one behind.

I want to make clear from the outset that it is men who must change their behaviour and their choices. Men must join the many women who are already taking action in this space to send a very clear message. In every space that men occupy, they must act to support women’s equality and stand up to violence, harassment and abuse.

We have all been moved by the stories told through #MeToo on social media, which has prompted thousands of women to disclose that they too have been victims of sexual harassment or assault. I pay tribute to and acknowledge the bravery of those women and men who have raised their hands and said, “Me too.” It is not easy and we cannot forget that there are many more who have not shared their experiences publicly. Each individual is entitled to deal with their own experience in their own way. If #MeToo has achieved anything, it is indeed to shine a spotlight on men’s violence against women; it has emphasised that we cannot take our foot off the gas and it has brought home the reality that no institution is immune from the scourge of sexual harassment.

Tackling violence against women and girls is the role of every individual, every community and every institution in Scotland and the Scottish Government is committed to leading a collective response and playing our part to make that happen. That is why, on Friday, we published a delivery plan to identify and implement the practical steps that will take us towards ending this violence for good. The delivery plan sets out 118 actions we intend to take from now to 2021 to ensure that we can make progress towards a Scotland where women and children live free from violence and abuse and the attitudes and inequalities that perpetuate them.

Our work in this area has a deliberate and decisive focus on prevention. That is why we will be running a number of campaigns, including on the new domestic abuse offence, as well as on sexual harassment and sexism. Feminist organisations such as Scottish Women’s Aid, Rape Crisis Scotland, Engender, Close the Gap and Zero Tolerance rightly challenge us all to do more as well as to raise awareness and understanding across society.

Ensuring that our young people have the right attitudes and an understanding of consent is critical for the future. That is why we are expanding the Rape Crisis Scotland sexual violence prevention programme to all 32 local authorities in Scotland.

On Friday, I was delighted to visit St John Ogilvie high school in Hamilton, which is the first of eight schools that we will be supporting over the next few years to develop a holistic approach to tackling gender-based violence. It was fantastic to hear directly from the students how committed they are to these issues, and I believe that the school will blaze a trail, which I hope many others will follow.

We must ensure that we build on the work that we are doing to give our children and young people the best start in life. That is why the delivery plan has a strong focus on education for young people, on improving the experience of the justice system for children, and on strengthening links with our work on child protection. Just recently, I was privileged to meet a group of young people called the everyday heroes, who have been working closely with us to shape equally safe. Their recommendations for action will be published in early 2018 and I will be responding to them. They are fantastic young people and I encourage members across the chamber to engage with that group of young people, as their voices should be heard and their views listened to.

We need to harness the power of all our educational facilities and we must make sure that our further and higher education campuses are free of this violence. I want to take this moment to mention the tragic case of Emily Drouet. Just 18 years old and in her first year at university, she was found dead in her flat in March last year, having taken her own life. She was experiencing domestic abuse by her partner. That serves to remind us that colleges and universities, like every other institution and community, have their share of men’s violence against women.

We need to do more, and that is why we will work with universities and colleges to support them in using the learning from our equally safe in higher education project at the University of Strathclyde to ensure the safety of students from gendered violence and to embed better understanding of these issues in their curricula.

I pay tribute to Fiona Drouet, Emily’s mother, who has campaigned, along with the National Union of Students, for universities to tackle these issues on campus and to provide better support for students. My colleague Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, has offered to meet Fiona. I know that she will give careful consideration to the important matters that have been raised by that heartbreaking case.

Raising awareness and embedding understanding are important, but the bigger challenge is delivering a societal shift such that women no longer occupy a subordinate position to men. This Government has a strong track record. A gender-balanced cabinet, the establishment of an Advisory Council on Women and Girls and the introduction of legislation to lock in the gains on ensuring equal representation on public boards are just a few of the important steps that we are taking.

This is a matter of human rights that are enshrined within the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which states that we have a duty to provide women, on equal terms with men, with the right to participate in Government and in public office at all levels.

We take our responsibility to uphold those rights seriously. To do so demands action to ensure that women are properly represented in our political and public institutions and more widely in senior and decision-making positions. Of course, we know that we are not there yet in terms of equal representation. Just less than 35 per cent of members of the Scottish Parliament in this session and 30 per cent of MPs are women. At the current pace of change, it will be another 25 years before we reach the point at which 50 per cent of elected members in local government are women.

We all know that we have a lot more to do. That is why the delivery plan sets out a series of steps that we believe will help make progress towards advancing women’s equality in a range of spaces—economic, civic, social and cultural.

We want women to feel safer in every space that they wish to inhabit. Part of doing that is about holding men to account for their behaviour in real and online spaces. That is why we will work with local community safety partners to link equally safe to their work and hold a round-table meeting with experts to look at what more we can do to tackle the pernicious online abuse and misogyny that women often experience when using social media.

Prevention is vital if we are to reduce and ultimately end violence against women and girls, but we also need to act here and now to ensure that those who are experiencing violence and abuse get the help and support that they need.

We want to ensure that public services work together effectively to support victims and survivors and put the rights of victims and survivors at the heart of their approach. We recognise the important role that local specialist third-sector services play, which is why we are providing three years of funding for those organisations to enable them to plan for the future.

We are investing significant funding in tackling violence against women and girls. For this year, I have committed nearly £12 million from my portfolio to support services and tackle the underlying issues that create the conditions for violence. The £20 million that has been invested by my colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Justice over the past three years to strengthen the justice response to tackling violence against women has been used to good effect to reduce criminal court waiting times, strengthen advocacy support across the country for victims of sexual violence and develop the capacity of perpetrator programmes.

As I said at the outset, it is men who need to change their behaviour and their choices if we are to end violence against women and girls. If they do not do so, it is right that they receive a robust response from justice services. That is why we are strengthening the law on domestic abuse by making coercive and controlling behaviour a criminal offence, so that it reflects the reality of domestic abuse. We have already passed the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016, which modernised the law on domestic and sexual abuse and created a specific offence of sharing private intimate images without consent.

We need to ensure that men who are willing to change their behaviour get the support that they need, so we will expand the Caledonian programme to ensure that male offenders can receive those interventions.

A lot has been done. We are doing important work in the area and I welcome the broad cross-party consensus on the agenda. However, there is much more to be done and we cannot rest until violence against women and girls is a thing of the past. As Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the executive director of UN Women, once said,

“the price of no change is unacceptable.”

I am sure that we all concur with that. It has been thrown into sharp focus by recent events. The Government commits to moving forward and working tirelessly to ensure that every woman and girl in Scotland lives free from violence.

I move,

That the Parliament welcomes the global 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence; commends the many activists and organisations, both in Scotland and across the world, providing front-line support for survivors, raising awareness of the problem and working tirelessly to challenge the underlying attitudes and inequalities that perpetuate violence against women and girls; calls on men everywhere to stand shoulder to shoulder with women in sending a clear message that violence against women and girls is never acceptable; reaffirms its support for Equally Safe, Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate all forms of violence against women and girls and welcomes the publication of the Equally Safe delivery plan, and agrees that it is for every individual, community and institution to stand up to abuse and harassment, hold perpetrators to account for their behaviour and work together to build a Scotland where everyone can live equally safe.

Photo of Adam Tomkins Adam Tomkins Conservative

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate and support the Scottish Government’s motion. I particularly like the line in the motion calling

“on men everywhere to stand shoulder to shoulder with women in sending a clear message that violence against women and girls is never acceptable”.

Certainly, this man stands shoulder to shoulder with everybody in the chamber on that.

Sunday marked the international day for the elimination of violence against women—an annual campaign that has run for more than 15 years. It also marked the start of 2017’s 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign. That is an opportunity for us as parliamentarians not only to increase public awareness but to take stock, evaluate progress and redouble our efforts. In so doing, we will no doubt hear many sobering statistics. We know, for example, that last year Police Scotland received on average more than 160 calls a day reporting domestic violence; that there has been a 66 per cent rise in the number of reported rapes and attempted rapes since 2010; and that almost 200 women and girls were forced into marriage in Scotland over a four-year period, with more than a third of those forced marriages taking place in my own city of Glasgow.

Those figures serve as a stark reminder of the scale of the problem that we face. In fact, incidences are likely much higher due to non-reporting. However, statistics tell only a small part of the story. They cannot possibly convey the horror of being violently abused in your own home, the betrayal of being sexually assaulted by someone whom you know or the trauma of being forced into a marriage while you are still in school uniform. Survivors have shown tremendous strength and resilience, and I echo the thanks that the Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities expressed to the activists and organisations that support them—Scottish Women’s Aid, Rape Crisis Scotland, Victim Support Scotland, Barnardo’s and many others.

The Scottish Conservatives stand with the Scottish and United Kingdom Governments as they work to eradicate gender-based violence at home and abroad. We know, for example, that

“One of the major challenges to efforts to prevent and end violence against women and girls worldwide is the substantial funding shortfall.”

That is why Department for International Development’s recent commitment to provide up to £12 million over three years to the United Nations trust fund in support of actions to eliminate violence against women and the Scottish Government’s additional £1 million for the equally safe strategy are particularly welcome. The additional UK aid, which was announced last week by our new Secretary of State for International Development, Penny Mordaunt, is expected to help some 750,000 women and girls around the world. The Prime Minister often talks about the good that Government can do; that, it seems to me, is a first-class example.

Also welcome was the news in October that the disclosure scheme for domestic abuse in Scotland—Clare’s law—has led to more than 900 people being told over the past two years that their partner has an abusive past. Ruth Davidson and my Scottish Conservative colleagues pushed hard for that scheme to be introduced north of the border after it was rolled out in England and Wales in 2014. That initiative is another piece in the jigsaw offering extra protection to women who are at risk of domestic violence, and it is positive to see it working so effectively.

However, as the cabinet secretary rightly said, there is much more to be done. The Scottish Government is rightly finding ways to tackle the scourge of gender-based violence, but that process is impeded if the agencies on the ground are ill-equipped to cope with increasing demand. The “Thematic Review of the Investigation and Prosecution of Sexual Crimes” raised a number of concerns in that regard, with victims of sexual violence variously reporting that the court system is “degrading and terrifying”, and that their ordeal in court was worse than the rape itself. The review found that, after taking the brave step to report the crime, a high number of victims

“disengage during the criminal justice process”.

That is not good enough, and Parliament must urgently monitor progress by the Crown Office in order to address such criticisms.

The theme for 2017’s campaign against gender-based violence is leave no one behind—an imperative to support those women and girls who are most vulnerable to gender-based violence, including ethnic minorities, those living with disabilities, migrants and refugees, and those in humanitarian crises as a result of conflict or natural disaster. It is concerning, therefore, that respondents to the consultation on the equally safe delivery plan feel that it has fallen short in relation to whom it should cover, including women and girls with additional vulnerabilities.

I make that point not to criticise or to condemn, but as a member of the Scottish Parliament for the Glasgow region, which is currently the only asylum dispersal area in Scotland. Last week, I met and spoke to the British Red Cross, which assisted more than 2,500 refugees and asylum seekers in Glasgow in 2016, some of whom are women who have experienced violence in their country of origin or on their journey to the UK. On arrival, their level of vulnerability can be heightened by intense difficulties in accessing services. Those are women who are very much at risk of exploitation and abuse, but the national framework to eliminate gender-based violence does not fully identify their additional vulnerabilities or adequately respond to them. The Scottish Government has recognised stakeholder feedback that the delivery plan needs to be improved in that area. Perhaps the cabinet secretary could shed further light on the issue when she winds up for the Government later this afternoon.

On female genital mutilation, too, the Scottish Government could—and, in our view, should—go further. Even though FGM has been explicitly illegal since 1985, there has never been a successful prosecution in Scotland. The national action plan on female genital mutilation commits to raising awareness of FGM among teachers and medical practitioners; to add to the national guidance for child protection; and for Police Scotland to issue internal guidance on so-called “honour-based violence”, which is a phrase that I do not like at all. Those are positive steps, and I welcome them, but why not go further, as the Scottish Conservatives have called for, and introduce court-ordered FGM protection orders, a mandatory reporting duty, lifelong anonymity for victims, a criminal offence of failing to protect one’s daughter, and not just ad hoc but statutory guidance for professionals? All those measures have been implemented south of the border. Why not here too?

It is fair to say that we have made good progress on tackling gender-based violence in recent years, but evidently we have further to go and there is more to be done yet. In that spirit, we support the Government’s motion this afternoon.

Photo of Claire Baker Claire Baker Labour

This afternoon’s debate is important. I am pleased that it is taking place during the United Nations’ 16 days of activism to end violence against women and girls.

Although the motion has a largely domestic context, the significance of this week reminds us of the global importance of the campaign and the plight that is faced by women and girls across the world who experience daily threats of violence and sexual exploitation. Gender-based violence is constant. In times of conflict and in times of peace, it will try to damage, destroy and demean women and girls. At the heart of it is inequality. Societies in which women and girls continue to be unequal in social, economic and political realms in which they are powerless, limited or restricted cannot fully challenge and change such a culture.

The 16 days of activism support the empowerment of women and girls and challenge the political leadership to take action. The voice from this Parliament must be clear and unequivocal that, although we are addressing the challenges at home, we do so in solidarity with all women and girls across the world. This year’s theme—leave no one behind: end violence against women and girls—encapsulates that responsibility.

We believe that we live in a tolerant, inclusive society, and those are the values that we promote. However, the reality of our society is that gender inequality still exists in the workplace, in the home and in the worlds of sport and education. Such inequality in our society is a root for the growth of gender-based violence.

In recent years, we have seen increases in the reporting of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence. Almost 11,000 sexual offences were reported last year, which is a rise of 5 per cent on the previous year. I know that Police Scotland and other agencies have made significant efforts to support the reporting of those crimes, and that can be used as an argument or explanation for the increase. However, I fear that we are seeing a shift in the type of crime that is being committed, with a greater focus on intimate and personal crimes being committed against partners, friends and acquaintances who are overwhelmingly women, and many of those crimes are not reported.

As part of the 16 days of activism, Rape Crisis Scotland has been providing snapshots. Yesterday, it tweeted:

“On 9th October 2017, 246 people received support from local rape crisis centres.”

This year, the Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre of Perth and Kinross celebrates its 10th year, and it held a fantastic exhibition called “Inside Outside”, which was informative, engaging, moving and ultimately hopeful. It showed the trauma of rape, sexual assault and sexual exploitation and the resilience and recovery that RASAC supports. Part of the group’s work is in schools, challenging gender stereotypes and expectations, discussing consent and working to change the culture that young people are experiencing.

Last week, we heard the announcement of the chair of the expert group on preventing sexual offending among children and young people, with an emphasis on prevention. That welcome appointment provides a focus for a difficult discussion.

Alongside the research, people are working every day with children and young people to address these issues, and they need to be supported. I was pleased to hear the cabinet secretary talking about specific funding for work in schools.

Barnardo’s Scotland has emphasised the need for children and young people of all ages to have access to high-quality education around health and wellbeing, including healthy relationships and gender equality. The review of personal and social education is on-going, and it gives us the opportunity to address gender inequality. Barnardo’s, Children 1st and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children also make strong points about child sexual abuse and exploitation, which the cabinet secretary might wish to address.

The recent focus on exposing sexual harassment and assault in the film industry, the media and politics demonstrates the protectionism that justifies that type of behaviour. The resultant #MeToo social media campaign showed that such behaviour is widespread. The typically weaker position of women in the workplace, which leads to fears about position, employment and status if women speak out, indicates that we have some way to go to achieve equality.

We see international examples of other societies that are more equal in terms of gender challenging those norms at an early age. If anything, our society—largely, though not exclusively, through marketing and commercialisation—has increased gender identity expectations on our children and young people. The emphasis is more on difference than it is on equality, and that underpins the power structures in which we live.

Equally safe is a welcome strategic direction to address those challenges. Recognising all forms of violence against women and girls offers a holistic approach to the problem. The action plan is welcome, but it must be properly resourced and widely disseminated and adopted. The work on domestic abuse is also welcome, and, as the bill progresses through the Parliament, I hope that we can strengthen it and address the availability of specialist courts so that women can access meaningful justice.

Nevertheless, there are concerns that the strategy is too focused on one area and needs to look more widely. Sexual exploitation is one area in which we could be bolder. My colleague Rhoda Grant has shown her commitment to tackling the issue and will talk more about the proposals that were in her member’s bill during the previous parliamentary session. There is interest in the issue across the chamber, and that is welcome.

The briefing from Zero Tolerance expressed disappointment that the equally safe delivery plan does not set out clear actions for how Scotland would prevent all forms of commercial sexual exploitation, especially of vulnerable women and young girls. Zero Tolerance highlights that around half of the women who are involved became involved aged 18 or younger and that as many as 80 per cent of those women who are working in flats, saunas or parlours are not originally from the UK. I fear that those are forgotten women and that we do not do enough to disrupt the industry, which has clear links to human trafficking. Not enough support is provided for women who have language barriers, drug and alcohol addiction problems and mental health problems, and there is not enough support for the women who are looking to escape from that life.

I look forward to this afternoon’s debate and the speeches from MSPs.

Photo of Ruth Maguire Ruth Maguire Scottish National Party

It is a privilege to speak in such an important debate.

I welcome the equally safe delivery plan, which was published last week. We are debating that plan during the global campaign for 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

Gender-based violence encompasses the whole continuum of violence that is perpetrated against women and girls, from sexual harassment to domestic abuse, from rape to sexual assault and from commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking for that purpose to so-called honour crimes.

The theme of this year’s campaign is leave no one behind: end violence against women and girls. The year in which we can speak to and pursue the aims of that theme with no caveats and no whataboutery will be the year in which we know that society has truly acknowledged and understood the magnitude of men’s violence against women and girls, and it will be the year in which we can move forward.

It is important to be clear that we are not there yet: we have not achieved gender equality, and violence against women and girls, wherever it is on the scale, is both a cause and a symptom of that inequality. There will not be a woman in or outside this place whose life has not been negatively affected by that in some way or another. It might not be all men, but it is all women.

The equally safe delivery plan is to be welcomed. It builds on successes that have already been achieved and on actions that are already under way, and it sets out 118 diverse and bold actions across four priority areas, which range from the expansion of Rape Crisis Scotland’s sexual violence prevention programme in schools to the piloting of the equally safe employer accreditation scheme, which is aimed at tackling gender-based violence in the workplace.

I have spoken before in the chamber of my concerns about commercial sexual exploitation, and I reiterate my position that, as long as sexual access to women and girls can be bought and sold as though we were objects, there can be no real equality and no real social justice.

I was glad to read that, as part of the delivery plan, the Women’s Support Project will deliver its challenging demand programme to raise awareness of commercial sexual exploitation and to build capacity in organisations to address the issue. I also welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment in the plan to consider how it could enhance support for service providers that are supporting harm reduction and exit for those who are engaged in prostitution. At the same time, however, I am worried that the action points do not go nearly far enough and do not tackle the issue at its root cause, which is male demand.

Primary prevention is, rightly, a key priority of the strategy, which seeks to ensure that interventions are early and effective and that they maximise the safety of women and girls. However, when it comes to commercial sexual exploitation, I am sorry to say that the action points appear to fall a bit short of the mark. The focus in the delivery plan appears to be on supporting women in prostitution to exit

“to reduce the harms associated with this kind of violence” rather than on preventing women from being exploited in the first place and tackling the root causes. Where the delivery plan refers to

“the issues that can lead to someone becoming exploited in this way”, it feels a bit vague and non-committal. Most significantly, the delivery plan conspicuously fails to acknowledge the single root cause of commercial sexual exploitation, which is male demand.

Another priority of the delivery plan is to ensure that

“Men desist from all forms of violence against women and girls and perpetrators of such violence receive a robust and effective response”.

However, when it comes to commercial sexual exploitation, there is no clear action point under that priority. The Scottish Government is clear that commercial sexual exploitation is a form of violence against women, so the next logical step is, surely, to criminalise those who perpetrate that violence. Male demand—the root cause of commercial sexual exploitation—must be explicitly and robustly addressed. As long as it is legal to purchase sexual access to our bodies, men will continue to perpetrate that violence against women with impunity and our fight for real equality and justice will remain heavily compromised. If we do not act, we will not achieve our end goal of eradicating violence against women, we will not hold perpetrators of violence against women to account and we will not radically change attitudes towards women, which we all acknowledge is needed.

The Scottish Government recently commissioned the review “Evidence Assessment of the Impacts of the Criminalisation of the Purchase of Sex”, the results of which were inconclusive. In the absence of clear empirical evidence, we must be guided by what we deem to be right or wrong and by our own convictions on the issue. That point is made in the review, which states:

“Ultimately, the absence of conclusive evidence is likely to require decision-making based on political standpoint and consideration of the policy context and framework in which any potential intervention is required.”

If our political standpoint is that prostitution is a form of violence against women and girls, the next logical step is clear to me. In this place, we will not always get unambiguous and objective evidence that tells us what to do. Sometimes, we have to put our heads above the parapet and fight for what we simply believe to be the right thing.

Photo of Annie Wells Annie Wells Conservative

I am, once again, pleased to speak in a debate to mark the UNiTE campaign’s 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

As something that transcends borders and cultures, gender-based violence is a global issue that affects millions of people every year. The horrific situations that millions of women and girls around the world find themselves in are almost too difficult to comprehend, which is why I am pleased that we can come together as MSPs to speak honestly about the issues that lie ahead in what can sometimes seem an insurmountable task.

This year’s theme—leave no one behind—hints at the scale of the global problem and reinforces the need to commit to a world that is free from violence for all women and girls and to reach those who are most underserved and marginalised in countries that are often blighted by war, natural disasters and a societal attitude towards women that can render them socially and economically vulnerable.

Data from a survey that was carried out in 87 countries between 2005 and 2016 showed that 19 per cent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 had experienced physical or sexual violence by a partner in the 12 months prior to the survey. Female genital mutilation, too, remains a global problem. The practice has declined by 24 per cent since around 2000, but, in countries where it remains prevalent, it is estimated that more than one in three girls aged between 15 and 19 still undergoes that unnecessary procedure.

I am pleased that extra UK aid was announced at the weekend, which will assist 750,000 women and girls over the next three years by increasing access to crucial services such as legal assistance, healthcare and counselling. I also welcome the UK’s push to eradicate gender-based violence through its 127 programmes to tackle such abuse in its many forms, through prevention of and response to domestic violence, acid attacks, FGM and child, early and forced marriage. I am proud that the UK Government is playing a leading role in tackling those issues around the world. It is only by raising awareness and taking serious action that we will continue to make progress against gender-based violence.

Domestically, there is still a perpetual problem to deal with, and I fully support the Scottish Government as it works to eradicate violence against women and girls. I welcome the additional £1 million of funding that has been announced for the equally safe budget as a means of teaching schoolchildren the importance of consent and healthy relationships and creating consistency across our local authorities as Rape Crisis Scotland’s sexual violence programme is rolled out further.

There are worrying trends in domestic violence. The latest statistics show that there has been a 1 per cent rise in the number of incidents to nearly 59,900 in 2016-17. In addition, nearly 2,000 rapes or attempted rapes were reported to the police in Scotland last year, which represented a 4 per cent rise from the previous year and a 66 per cent rise from 2010-11. Although I recognise that that is down to an increase in reporting, I note with concern the need for continued improvement in access to support services.

I was, of course, pleased that Archway Glasgow recently received a funding boost of £445,000, which will allow the sexual assault referral clinic to expand its opening hours until midnight five days a week, but I would like to highlight the scope that exists for the model to be replicated across the country. When Archway was opened, almost a decade ago, it was signalled as the first of many clinics across Scotland that would give victims access to a one-stop shop where all the services that were needed could be easily accessed. I urge the Scottish Government to look at rolling that model out further.

Furthermore, when it comes to FGM—an issue that is believed to affect 170,000 girls across the UK—although I will always support a consensual approach, it is important that we work together and improve how we respond to and prevent the practice in our country. No one wants to see that barbaric practice take place in Scotland. I repeat the comments that I made back in a debate on FGM in February. I urge the Scottish Government to take on board calls for initiatives that already take place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, including statutory reporting for professionals, protection orders and the creation of a new criminal offence for parents and guardians who tolerate and facilitate FGM.

In closing, I will draw attention to some of the local initiatives in my area that help to drive greater public understanding and generate a national conversation. In Glasgow, supporters attending a Glasgow Warriors match at Scotstoun next month will be invited to sign the white ribbon Scotland pledge as part of the city’s 16 days of activism. That request will, no doubt, give food for thought to thousands of people who otherwise may never have heard about the 16 days campaign.

There is a lot of positive and decisive work being done both locally and nationally as we bid to eradicate gender-based violence. I warmly welcome the Scottish Government’s extra funding and the honest discussions and speeches that we have heard and will hear from members today. Gender-based violence is not an easy subject, but I am pleased that it has been brought to the chamber for debate today and I hope that we will all continue to tackle it head on.

Photo of Kate Forbes Kate Forbes Scottish National Party

As a woman, it is my right, in terms of entitlement and morality, that I should not be subjected to violence, domestic abuse, rape, sexual assault, commercial sexual exploitation or honour-based violence—just as that is the right of the one in three women worldwide who are sexually or physically assaulted over their lifetime.

The 16 days of activism against gender-based violence ends on human rights day for a reason, which is that women are every bit as human and as deserving of respect and equal treatment. Women deserve rights: the right to dignity, the right to protection and the right to the freedoms to believe, to learn, to express, to move and to marry whom they please. Until women have those freedoms in every community across the planet, we will continue to recognise the 16 days campaign every year.

Women are human and they are entitled to the fundamental freedoms inherent to all humanity. That may be stating the obvious, but globally, almost 40 per cent of all murders of women are committed by male partners. In Scotland, just over 50 per cent of the female victims of homicide were killed by their partner or ex-partner, while that was true for just 6 per cent of male victims. That sobering figure highlights the fact that Scotland is not exempt from violence against women or the scourge of gender-based abuse.

One of the real strengths of the 16 days campaign is that it starts with local activism—it could start in a small village in rural Scotland—and can be discussed in the Scottish Parliament, yet we join with activists across the world to say that gender-based violence is not inevitable, but is abnormal, and we condemn it.

In 1999—eight years after the first 16 days of activism campaign was launched in 1991—Kofi Annan commented:

“Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation. And it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development, and peace.”

I am glad that the Scottish Parliament is joining women across the planet to condemn the trellis of inequality on which grows the poisonous, suffocating ivy of violence and abuse, beneath which men shelter comfortably, knowing that their deeds will go unpunished, but women die at the hands of their partners.

Like other members, I utterly condemn the cultural and community norms that ascribe lower status to women and which make violence acceptable. I condemn the domestic partners who believe that their abuse is justified and okay because everybody else does it, because they could not control themselves or because of inebriation and drug use. I condemn the way that we continue to fail women in need because help is not there when it is desperately needed, either because the public justice system across the world is broken, corrupt and dysfunctional or because women do not believe that it will make a jot of difference if they speak up. What is worse than a person knowing that they need help, yet knowing that, if they ask for help, it will not come?

For every woman whose voice we have heard during the #MeToo campaign, and for every woman whose story we have read with great gratitude for their bravery in speaking up, there are hundreds of thousands more who live in fear or who live with the consequences of violence. That violence is for one reason: it is because they are women. The acts of violence differ, but, at the end of the day, the campaign is about the women whose only crime is to be born a woman in a world that still sees fit to abuse and attack them.

I pay tribute to the invincible Ash Denham for her fearless definition of prostitution as violence against women and her unswerving determination to end commercial sexual exploitation. I pay tribute to Rhoda Grant and to other MSPs, including Ruth Maguire, who have continued to pursue that campaign and who will pursue it until they have succeeded in protecting the people whom Claire Baker called the “forgotten women”. I fully agree with Ruth Maguire that caring for women who exit the sexual exploitation industry is fundamentally important, but that does not deal with the core problem. We are raising that problem today, we have raised it in every day of the 16 days campaign, and we will raise it every single day until we have succeeded in solving it. The real problem is male violence against women. It must end, but it will end only if we identify the core problem. I join with women across the world today to say that we utterly condemn the violence that is perpetrated.

Photo of Rhoda Grant Rhoda Grant Labour

The debate is an annual event that marks the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. Violence against women is rooted in women’s inequality. Every time that we take a step to counter that inequality, it feels like a new front opens up. This year we have been faced with revelations from every walk of life of the sexual harassment of women in the workplace. The practice is used by some men to undermine women and to put women in their place—one where they cannot progress in their career without providing sexual favours and where they should always remain submissive to men.

Until a couple of months ago, a woman who spoke out about harassment would have been quickly denounced. Her career would have been over and she would have been marked as a trouble maker or a prude. It may be a step forward that that is no longer the case, but the revelations show vividly the despicable behaviour that has gone unchallenged for far too long. We need true equality to ensure that that cannot happen to another woman, and the change in culture must be led by men as well as by women. The vast majority of men are horrified by such behaviour, and they must speak out now. Sexual abuse is not a woman’s problem; it is a problem with some men.

Our society must stop giving out mixed messages. We must stand for total equality and have zero tolerance for all aspects of violence against women. It is surely a mixed message to say that it is okay for men to buy a woman in prostitution but not okay for men to demand sexual favours to enhance a woman’s career. Both are wrong and both should not be tolerated. That stark inequality demeans women. Until we put it right, we will continue to be plagued by violence against women, which is a symptom of an unequal society.

When we look at other countries, it is clear that those that prohibit the purchase of sex create more equal societies. Those societies have equal pay and equal maternity and paternity leave, and are much fairer societies because of that. Basic human respect for our fellow humans breeds kinder societies and the willingness to work together for the greater good.

It is no coincidence that domestic abuse starts with financial control. That is followed by degrading behaviour and physical and sexual violence. It is a process that perpetrators use to gain control of their victim. As a society, we must not tolerate that in any guise. No human should have control over another human, and we must build fair and respectful societies.

In Scotland, we have prided ourselves on our measures to combat violence against women—indeed, we are legislating again, this time on coercive control—but we still have a long way to go. Ireland—north and south—has made the purchase of sex illegal, and that has led to more trafficking of women to Scotland to feed prostitution. We warned of that at the time.

We need to deal with prostitution in a way that has equality at its core. Currently, our laws penalise those who are forced into prostitution and do nothing whatsoever to protect them. They are penalised and criminalised, while those who feed the industry walk away scot free. It is simply not good enough only to say that prostitution is wrong and a form of violence against women and to do absolutely nothing at all to stop it.

The equally safe strategy makes it clear that violence against women includes commercial sexual exploitation, which includes prostitution, lap dancing, stripping, pornography and trafficking. The party policy of a majority of the members of the Scottish Parliament is to criminalise those who buy sex and to decriminalise those who sell sex. Prostitution feeds off poverty, which is growing. Poverty makes people vulnerable, and they struggle to survive. Prostitution also feeds off abuse. It is no coincidence that those who work with survivors of childhood sexual abuse find that many of those survivors have also been prostituted. Their treatment as an object for someone else’s gratification in their childhood leads them into the same as an adult.

Some argue that every aspect of prostitution should be decriminalised and that pimps and brothel keepers should be free to abuse without sanction. If prostitution were legalised, would it be okay for a careers adviser to recommend it as a job? Would it be okay to sanction somebody if they turned down work as a prostitute?

It is predominantly women who are exploited, but some men are, too. However, it is clear that it is always men who do the exploiting. I ask every member to consider whether prostitution is okay for them, their parents, their partner or their children, and to do something that I heard Linda Thompson from the Women’s Support Project tell an audience to do, which really brought the reality of prostitution home to me. She told us all that, when we left that gathering, we should take note of the next 10 men we met. She said, “What would it take for you to sell sex to them? How desperate would you need to be? What price would you accept? Now tell me that it is a choice—a simple transaction between buyer and seller. Frankly, if it is not good enough for you and yours, it is not good enough for anyone.”

Photo of John Finnie John Finnie Green

Like many other members, I am very pleased to speak in the debate. As Rhoda Grant said, it calls for men to speak out. As Ruth Maguire said, all men may not be affected by the subject that we are talking about, but all women and girls certainly are. Therefore, I am very happy to lend support to the cabinet secretary’s motion.

The motion mentions

“the global 16 Days of Activism”.

It is quite clear that the problems that colleagues have alluded to are worldwide ones.

We are talking about gender-based violence. I almost feel that I should start every speech of this nature by apologising for my gender. However, it is important that men speak out.

I welcome the publication of the Scottish Government’s delivery plan, which will go some way towards addressing underlying attitudes. However, a lot of work still requires to be done, of course.

I am very grateful to the various organisations for their briefings. Children 1st has been quoted a couple of times. It talked about the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill, to which my colleague Rhoda Grant referred. I am a member of the Justice Committee and see that bill as one way in which we will make things a little better. Children 1st has said that that bill

“represents a vital step forward in tackling gender-based violence and in recognising the impact of this type of violence on children.”

Of course, it is not simply the spouse or partner who is affected by such violence, but the entire household, and it can often go beyond that. A lot of good work has been undertaken by the Scottish Government and by the third sector. Many members have heard me speak in such debates before, and my point of reference is the police service in the mid-1970s. My word, what a transformation we have seen—and all for the good. The approach is so much better, and that is because organisations now recognise the far-reaching impact of violence against women and girls.

That transformation is continuing. There are a number of subjects that some of us would not have felt comfortable talking about in days past, but the exposure of issues such as female genital mutilation and the growing awareness of the signs of human trafficking have changed that. If I write it down, I always put heavy inverted commas around the phrase “honour-based violence”, because I find it a deeply offensive term, but some people use it as if adding in a couple of words offsets the word “violence”.

The focus has to be on prevention, protection and recovery, and professional training is key to that. I want to mention—not for the first time—judicial training, or the lack thereof. I understand that the voluntary element of that training is part of the problem. It is crucial for the judiciary to understand the relationship between the criminal law and the civil law, and how closely they interrelate. We all talk about access to justice and how justice should be there for the victims of domestic violence, and the mere involvement of the criminal justice system or civil legal system should not further victimise those individuals.

We talk about women and girls, but children of both genders are affected. There are some structural and systemic problems in that regard. A number of colleagues have talked about the role that education plays, particularly in relation to respect. We can achieve a lot by treating everyone with respect, without qualification and without having to describe that further. Key to that is the teaching of consent and the growing awareness that consent is being disregarded. Of course, such education has to be age appropriate, but the issue must be addressed. We cannot have any part of the Highlands and Islands, or any other area, where the issue is not tackled head on, because the problems are universal.

The plan highlights the children’s rights and wellbeing impact assessment. That is most welcome because, as others have said, we need an evidence-based approach to decision making. I also welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to consider incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. I should perhaps declare an interest in that regard, as I have proposed a member’s bill—the children (equal protection from assault) (Scotland) bill—to give children the same protection that we would have. I therefore welcome the Scottish Government’s comments.

It is essential that children’s rights are fully respected. There was legislation last year on the sharing of images, and it is important that we understand that technology advances and that the ways in which people visit violence or intimidation on others have changed.

In relation to our on-going work on the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill, a phrase in the stage 1 report jumped out at me. It referred to

“the powerful and moving private testimony” of the people who gave evidence on coercive behaviour. It can be a challenge for people to understand that, and I come back to what I said about the judiciary and the legal people, who need to understand that something as seemingly well-meaning as a children’s access visit can be used to continue and perpetrate abuse. That is well documented. Casework also records the trauma that is visited thereafter on grandparents who seek to mediate in those circumstances.

A lot of positive things are happening. Reference has been made to the growing reporting of crimes against women. Going back to my comments about policing in the 1970s, I reiterate that there is a recognition that the police have different approaches now, that there is support in place and that third sector organisations are there to support people who come forward. Access to justice is hugely important, and I hope that our discussion about the issue today takes things one stage forward.

Photo of Alex Cole-Hamilton Alex Cole-Hamilton Liberal Democrat

I remind members that before my election to the Scottish Parliament I was a member of the ministerial task force on violence against women and girls and helped to author parts of “Equally Safe”, the national strategy that we are debating today.

I thank the Government for an excellent motion. I very much support the necessarily gendered nature of this debate, and I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with Adam Tomkins and other men who have given excellent speeches today, as allies in the global struggle against violence against women and girls.

In January 2015, the world lost Dr Carl Djerassi, a lifelong feminist and inventor of the contraceptive pill. I have mentioned him in the chamber before; it was my pleasure to spend an afternoon with him when he got his honorary degree from the University of Aberdeen. I was astonished to learn that, while he was conducting his research during the 1950s, prior to the release of Enavid, the first iteration of the pill, he came under pressure from politicians and senior managers to develop an oral contraceptive for men. Such was the recognition of what the pill could do for the liberation of women, by putting family planning under women’s control for the first time, that the visceral reaction from the patriarchy was to stop his work.

That is an example of the control that men have sought to exert over women for time immemorial. There is a spectrum of control, which starts with cultural constraints on women that men fight to retain and ends with the worst forms of violence, about which we have heard today.

We live in more enlightened times, but we are still learning how far we must still travel if we are to break up that spectrum of control. In the year that has elapsed since the 2016 international day for the elimination of violence against women, new frontiers of our struggle have emerged. One such frontier was recently laid bare to us in the revelations that came out of Hollywood about the sexually exploitative behaviour of several movie moguls, who, to put it simply, used their power and status to abuse women.

Allegations of that nature have also fallen closer to home. It is vital that we in the Scottish Parliament recognise the manifestations of the spectrum that have been revealed in the shadows of this chamber. I welcome the Parliament’s proactive response to allegations of harassment, just as I welcome the tenets and aspirations of “Equally Safe”. We might not be talking about physical violence in the workplace in that context, but harassment is a tool of coercive control, abuse and exploitation, and as such should be considered in the context of this debate.

Such abuse is widespread. Some 23 per cent of women who were surveyed by Amnesty International said that they had experienced online abuse and harassment at least once, and nearly half said that the experience made them feel at physical risk. In 2014-15, Police Scotland recorded close to 60,000 incidents of domestic abuse. That is an astonishing and heartbreaking figure.

The problem shows no sign of relenting. Just last week, UN secretary general António Guterres said:

“Every woman and every girl has the right to a life free of violence. Yet this rupture of human rights occurs in a variety of ways in every community, particularly affecting those who are most marginalized and vulnerable.”

The value of the support services for victims that are provided by organisations such as Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland, with which I have worked for many years, is undeniable. It is vital that funding for those organisations continues, despite tightening budgets across the public and voluntary sectors. Such organisations are undoubtedly a key part of our response to violence against women and girls.

We need to change our culture and the way in which we bring up our children. We need to teach young people from an early age about respectful, appropriate relationships, and we need to model positive behaviour.

It is small wonder that, for many years, a range of stakeholders have challenged several domestic norms. They are right to point out that we will forever remain adrift of our aspirations to end violence against women if we legitimise the use of any kind of violence in the home. I am therefore heartily glad that in the year that has passed since we last debated the issue, an insurmountable majority has been forged across this Parliament for the ending of physical punishment of children in this country, through John Finnie’s proposed member’s bill.

As I have said in the past, we need a dual focus in this agenda. I will use the remainder of my remarks to focus on the end game, which is almost as important as ending violence itself—that is, trauma recovery. Adverse childhood experiences, and particularly the experiencing or witnessing of domestic violence, can have lifelong effects that can reduce life opportunities. If we can get trauma recovery right, we can build resilience and prevent the escalation of those problems to negative social outcomes. Article 39 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child lays out the right of every child to recover, but we are a considerable distance from achieving that for all too many of our children.

An NSPCC report entitled “The Right to Recover” revealed that 15 of 17 Scottish local authorities analysed had no dedicated trauma recovery services for the under-fives. We cannot turn that reality around overnight, but we can look to models of best practice, such as the Barnhaus pilot, implemented by Children 1st in Edinburgh, which delivers trauma recovery and allows child witnesses to give witness testimony without being retraumatised. Most importantly, we can ensure that all our universal services deliver an approach that is trauma informed, with basic continuing professional development for existing staff on the impact of trauma on young lives.

By bookending that terrible reality in our culture in that way, we can begin to bring about meaningful and lasting progress towards the eradication of violence against women and children in our society. I am grateful for the Scottish Government’s efforts to foster consensus in its motion and it can be assured of our support tonight.

Photo of Ash Denham Ash Denham Scottish National Party

Over the past few months, countless women have come forward with their stories of gender-based harassment or violence. To our horror, but not to our surprise, women from Hollywood to Holyrood have spoken out about deep-seated power imbalances and attitudes that have induced assault, abuse, harassment and rape. It felt, and it still feels, as if we are on the cusp of a watershed moment: that society has at last been provoked enough—perhaps disturbed enough—to collectively confront those profound societal failings that have given rise to gender-based violence. I certainly hope so, but each of us must keep speaking up and keep the spotlight on the fact that the vast majority of violent crime victims are women, the vast majority of domestic abuse victims are women and the vast majority of those trafficked for sex are women. In speaking up and pushing towards a true watershed moment, we must act according to the theme of this year’s 16 days of activism campaign and leave no one behind.

I welcome the Scottish Government’s equally safe strategy and delivery plan because it attempts to tackle everything from changing and shaping attitudes through education, to ending social, cultural, economic and political imbalances faced by women, to enhancing health, justice and housing services in an effort to leave no woman or child behind. For example, £1 million in additional funding has been provided to teach schoolchildren about consent. In addition, Rape Crisis Scotland’s sexual violence prevention programme will be rolled out to a further 11 local authorities, and an equally safe accreditation scheme will be available for employers to become equipped to inhibit gender-based violence in the workforce. Those are steps towards solutions aimed at preventing violence against women and girls.

However, in tackling gender-based violence, we must continue to target the behaviour of the perpetrators. Last year, there were at least 150 victims of human trafficking in Scotland, about half of whom were women. Of those women, 92 per cent were trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Today, in Edinburgh alone, according to a Google search, 138 women are available to purchase sex from and some can be delivered like a pizza to your door. However, women and girls are not commodities to be bought or sold, used and discarded.

A friend of mine, Evon Idahosa, works to eradicate sex trafficking in her home state of Edo in Nigeria, which is a source country for many of the women who are sex trafficked into Europe and into Scotland. She alerted me to a recent story involving Nigerian girls. She works in the area of trafficking because she believes, as I do, that those girls deserve better than the abuse, rape, violence and even murder that awaits them at the hands of traffickers, pimps and punters if they make the journey across the desert. The story is about 26 girls aged between 14 and 18 who were found dead, floating on a boat off the coast of Italy, having been sexually assaulted. I want us to remember those girls. We only know the names of two of them, but we know that another two were pregnant.

Twenty six is the size of a school class and it is almost the number of seats in one part of the chamber. That is 26 children—children with parents, siblings, talents and dreams of the life that they might have—found dead on a boat; on a silent, floating coffin in the Mediterranean. Imagine it. Imagine being sold to traffickers at just 14 years old. Imagine your terror as you realise that you may never see your home and family again. Imagine having to watch and listen as others are beaten and raped in front of you and knowing that there is no escape and you are likely to be next. Imagine being forcibly loaded on to an unsuitable boat in rough seas and then feeling the boat capsize and the water rush in. Imagine hearing the screams as the water crashes over you.

Trafficked girls are routinely treated like that—we know that—because they are seen as less than human. Girls like those are trafficked and prostituted so that their bodies can be used for the gratification of not just one man but many men, or any number of men who can afford to pay.

Let us stop talking about the girls—what girls wear, what girls drink, what girls should and should not do—and instead start talking about the men. Let us talk about the men who rape, the men who hit and the men who buy underage girls to have sex with. Let us turn the focus on to men who abuse and men who are violent—not all men, but those men. Let us send a message to those men that those behaviours are not acceptable. Let us send the message that enough is enough, and that we are sick and tired of clearing away the dead bodies of girls as if they are less than human, as if they do not matter, as if any of this is somehow inevitable or excusable and as if we as a society will not be complicit if we keep those secrets and look the other way. Those girls were on that boat because the demand for young flesh exists in Europe and in Scotland. As long as a man can pay to abuse women and children with no threat of consequence, the cycle of abuse, in which women have neither equal safety nor equal protection, will continue, and the bodies will continue to pile up.

Our watershed moment is within our grasp. For the sake of so many women and children who need our support and our action, we cannot let it pass by. Let us leave no one behind. For the sake of the 26 dead girls on a boat and the many, many dead girls and women in Scotland, let us look seriously at challenging demand.

Photo of Gordon Lindhurst Gordon Lindhurst Conservative

The debate is an important one. I hardly need say that, particularly following my colleague Ash Denham’s speech. As the British deputy high commissioner in Kolkata, Bruce Bucknell, said at the recent international conference on anti-human trafficking initiatives, I am disappointed that we still have to discuss these issues in the year 2017. We are talking about crimes that should have been confined to the dustbin of history long ago.

As we have heard, significant UK Government action and investment has gone into tackling gender-based violence across the world. The Department for International Development has in place 127 programmes—almost double the number that it had in 2012—that tackle issues such as domestic violence, acid attacks and female genital mutilation.

The prevalence of physical and sexual violence is still high. Around one in five women in 87 countries worldwide experienced the problem in the 12 months prior to a study that was carried out in 2016. Today there are practices and attitudes across the world—including in our own country, sadly—that can lead to violence against women. However, positive work is taking place to change some of those attitudes and behaviours. For example, UK aid is contributing to the raising voices programme in Uganda, which seeks to change the stigma, discrimination and attitudes around the acceptability of violence. Within communities that have benefited from the programme, women are now reportedly 52 per cent less likely to experience physical violence.

In spite of the UK taking a leading role in the world, we continue to face problems in dealing with the same type of violence here. As mentioned by my colleague Adam Tomkins, reports of domestic violence, rape and attempted rape have been rising in Scotland in recent years. Whether or not the rise in reported cases is down to victims’ increased confidence in coming forward, the fact is that those types of crimes continue to occur. Let us hope that changing attitudes and behaviours will lead to a reduction in violence towards women as we move forward.

Some of these crimes can be complex and varied, and further measures may be required to deal with them. For example, it is understood that 170,000 women in the UK have undergone FGM, which is a particularly barbaric procedure with specific cultural roots. As the UK Government has recognised, that type of violence requires its own approach, which includes legislative change to offer effective tools for victims, community leaders and medical practitioners. My Scottish Conservative colleagues have today highlighted some of the benefits of those legislative improvements, which I also discussed in a debate on FGM at the beginning of the year.

In some ways, Scotland may lag behind the rest of the UK in combating that horrific practice. The UK Government has taken legislative steps to provide protection for girls who are potentially at risk from suffering from the procedure, and it is coming down hard on those who do not offer girls adequate protection or who actively seek to ignore the illegality of the practice.

Organisations such as Shakti Women’s Aid, which is based in Edinburgh and has outreach staff across Scotland, work with communities where women are at greater risk of FGM or forced marriage, and with those who have already experienced it. I welcome that work and thank the organisation for it, but Scotland’s justice system could do more to offer protection. That is why the Scottish Conservatives have today proposed possible ideas for reform, including court protection orders for victims and potential victims, mandatory reporting for professionals, and a new criminal offence of failing to protect daughters, among other proposals.

The Government announcement of extra funding is to be welcomed, but it should go hand in hand with addressing other types of crimes against women that are happening in Scotland, where tools to deal with the problem may be significantly lacking. I urge the Government to reflect on those proposals so that those who have suffered from unacceptable violence here are not left behind.

Photo of Gillian Martin Gillian Martin Scottish National Party

It is commendable that we are having this debate during the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. The Scottish Government has shown its commitment to safety for women and girls in Scotland through the equally safe plan and through investment in front-line services for those who have been affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence. However, combating gendered violence and inequality goes beyond any one Government portfolio—it cuts across many portfolios.

The mainstreaming of gender issues is key to protecting women and girls from abuse. One key way of mainstreaming the fight against gender-based violence is to link it with our education policies, and that is the focus of my contribution. Early years and education policies are crucial to preventing violence before it happens. I am happy to note that one of the main priorities in the “Equally Safe” document is that

“Interventions are early and effective, preventing violence.”

One of the most effective ways to prevent violent, unequal relationships is to explicitly and clearly teach children and young people how to develop healthy relationships with one another. That issue was raised recently in the Education and Skills Committee, which was looking at the personal and social education review that is being conducted by the Scottish Government. I am pleased to see that the PSE review is part of the equally safe delivery plan. The action point that I highlighted notes that the PSE review will allow the Government to better consider how consent is taught in the early years and in primary and secondary schools.

I believe that the PSE and sex education that we teach should go beyond the concept of mere consent. In considering young people’s awareness, we should be discussing enthusiastic consent. In recent years, the discussion around sexual health has moved on to the idea of enthusiastic consent, which is about promoting a healthy, positive and open conversation. Enthusiastic communication should be present from the start of a relationship. In order for us to adopt that approach, in addition to promoting a message of violence prevention, I would like more work to be done on a message of healthy relationship promotion, and young people and their parents must be involved in shaping the messages around that.

I am afraid to say that things are taking an unhealthy turn. In what world is it okay for boys to coerce girls into sending them nude photographs on Snapchat, Instagram or other social media? In what world is it okay for boys to send unsolicited images of their genitals to girls? When did this behaviour become normal? I am not sure, but in speaking to many young people about this, I am told that it is not just common—it is becoming normal behaviour. How does that engender healthy, respectful relationships? I recently met Barnardo’s, which also contributed to the equally safe plan through the consultation. Barnardo’s has produced a report with the centre for youth and criminal justice called “Over the Internet, Under the Radar”.

We must recognise that online abuse needs direct action and I am going to call on online platforms to do considerably more to stop sanctioning that abuse and to work with law enforcement. The co-operation of social media platforms with police is nowhere near good enough—I have personal experience of that. I say to those platforms: stop protecting abusers by not releasing the information that you hold on the IP addresses of your users when that information is asked for in a police investigation.

This issue is close to my heart. I have been working with Young Scot and local colleges to promote awareness of online safety for young people, particularly around coercion and harassment in relation to sharing images online and the consequences of that behaviour. Today, I gave the green light to two drama scripts written by students of television production at North East Scotland College on issues around consent for image sharing and sexting. The scripts will be used by Young Scot in its “Digi, Aye?” campaign, which raises awareness around social media, consent, sexting and image sharing. These will be films by young people, for young people, getting messages on consent out on a platform that is used by young people. The method of messaging is as important as the messages and young people should be fully involved in the production of those messages if they are to be effective.

In my campaigning on this issue, I too have seen what Barnardo’s has concluded, which is that there is inconsistent and unsure handling of the subject of online sexual violence, not least by parents who are struggling to know how to engage with their children on the issue. Equally safe and the PSE review should be sure to particularly consider how online relationships may require different responses from and the further education of those working in our schools and public services. We must also support parents, who are key influencers—and, to be honest, need to know what they are dealing with and how best to handle it.

Just as our actions to combat gendered violence should not be isolated to one policy area, health and wellbeing education should not be isolated to one class or to one subject area. Those lessons should not exist in isolation. Schools should be able to respond effectively to incidents, such as those that arise around sexting. That means taking a “no wrong door” approach to teaching health and wellbeing in schools. A child should know that whichever staff member they choose to communicate with on these issues, that person will know how to support them.

I am heartened to see the connections being made with early years and education policies in the equally safe delivery plan. The fight against gendered violence and the promotion of positive messages around relationships must start in our schools from an early age.

Photo of Pauline McNeill Pauline McNeill Labour

I join the cabinet secretary in recognising all the many women and girls who have stood up against gender-based violence and encouraged others to come forward. Women across the globe have been standing up against the endemic nature of the violence against them, which we know cuts across socioeconomic backgrounds, continents and cultures. We also know that women from ethnic backgrounds and those with a disability are at particular risk.

Domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, rape, child marriage, so-called honour killings—violence against women is a global problem and it requires a global perspective, as others have said.

Ntonya Sande’s first year as a teenager would also be her first year of married life. Up to the moment that water swept away her parents’ field in a district of Malawi, they had been scraping a living together. When a young man came to their door and asked for the 13-year-old’s hand in marriage, the weather had changed everything for the family. There was not enough food to feed every mouth at the table. Ntonya gave birth to her daughter before she was aged 14. Child marriage is a global issue. Millions of girls are forced into child marriage. Millions of girls miss out on their education and their lives because of it. Iraq recently dropped plans to allow girls aged 9 to marry. Across the world, there is a big message to be received.

As others have said, it is arguable that the recent revelations on the sexual conduct of men represent a golden opportunity to make an even greater paradigm shift towards women’s equality. If we create the conditions for victims to be listened to, and the victims see that things can change as a result of coming forward, we can make a greater shift towards women’s lives being free from violence.

As Adam Tomkins and others have highlighted, the backdrop of statistics showing an increase in violence is depressing, but it focuses our minds. I support the motion and the campaign, equally safe, but explicitly missing from the motion is the root of the problem—men’s power in society and the hold that they have with that power, as displayed in the relationships that exist between men and women. Men are still the dominant sex in almost every area of society. It is, of course, abuse of that power that is the problem. Knowing that that power is unlikely to be challenged and can be perpetuated means that those who hold the power can behave as they like, unchallenged. It is that fundamental thing that has to change for us to tackle the bigger and wider issues.

Power cannot be unaccountable; it cannot go unfettered; and it certainly should not be passed down the generations to other men. That is why we must see this as a watershed moment.

As Engender points out, access to resources is a fundamental aspect of gender inequality. Economic inequality increases the risk of a woman being a victim of violence, as it recreates subordination within the home, at work and in wider society. Many women are trapped. The average woman in Scotland still earns £182 less per week than a man due to occupational segregation. Globally, women are still paid far less than men—in some cases 60 to 75 per cent of men’s wages.

There is hope of changing the status quo to ensure that there are more women in positions of power, but that will not be done simply by good men volunteering to give up that power. There will have to be women leading the fight alongside men.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, who was a policy aide to Hillary Clinton, said:

“The best hope for improving the lot of all women ... is to close the leadership gap ... Only when women wield power in sufficient numbers will we create a society that genuinely works for all women. That will be a society that works for everyone."

There are indeed 15 female world leaders currently in office, eight of whom are their country’s first ever woman in power. They represent just 10 per cent of the 193 countries that are registered by the United Nations. We can see the extent of the problem.

We have come a long way, but it is shocking to realise that it was only in 1989 that rape in marriage was outlawed in Scotland, two years before England and Wales. In fact the nature of violence against women shows that by far the most common perpetrators of violence against women are current and former husbands, partners or boyfriends. That might go some way towards explaining why abuse that affects women’s lives so extensively is often underreported.

Some national studies have shown—I think that this figure was used already by another member—that up to 70 per cent of women have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime. Seventy per cent is a shocking figure indeed.

We can see the response of women across Europe and the world to the revelations of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual assaults. In France, for example, 86,000 women posted comments on social media. It is worth mentioning that President Macron of France has just announced a new law against sexism, which will fine men who wolf whistle or are lecherous to women on French streets. Whatever we think about that, we can see that it is quite a strong response. He says that it is unacceptable that women feel uncomfortable in public spaces and that women must not be afraid to use those spaces.

I will close with a quotation from Sheryl Sandberg, who is the chief operating officer of Facebook, and, of course, a woman. She says:

“A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes.”

That may be true, but we would all like to start by seeing women and girls living their lives free from violence.

Photo of Richard Lyle Richard Lyle Scottish National Party

As members have already reflected, the motion is important. It allows the Parliament not only to categorically recognise and mark our contribution to the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, but to underline our absolute understanding that violence against women is a fundamental violation of human rights. Across the entire chamber, we are committed to tackling it and I stand with everyone in the chamber in that regard.

The motion focuses on how we can make Scotland equally safe—the practical actions that we can all undertake and the responsibility that we all have. As members have highlighted, equally safe is Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls. That refers, of course, to violent and abusive behaviour that is directed at women and girls precisely because they are women and girls. I am saddened to say that that behaviour is predominantly carried out by men and often stems from systemic, deep-rooted women’s inequality. It can include domestic abuse, sexual assault, commercial sexual exploitation and so-called honour-based violence, such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage.

I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate because we men must take a leadership role in tackling those behaviours wherever they exist and, as a result, contribute to the overall aim of the equally safe strategy, which is to create

“a strong and flourishing Scotland where all individuals are equally safe and respected, and where women and girls live free from such abuse”.

That aim is underpinned by four priority areas, which are to ensure that:

“Scottish society embraces equality and mutual respect, and rejects all forms of violence against women and girls

Women and girls thrive as equal citizens: socially, culturally, economically and politically

Interventions are early and effective, preventing violence and maximising the safety and wellbeing of women and girls

Men desist from all forms of violence against women and girls and perpetrators of such violence receive a robust and effective response”.

We must also ensure that our court system, including family courts, listens to women and respects women’s and children’s rights. Judges must now, I believe, attend training on gender-based violence. They must address emotional abuse by men and should defend women and their children and get the facts.

The Government has committed extra funding. I note the proposals in the briefing from Children 1st. Although I agree with its comments, I also say that we must safeguard our children before they get through the court system and give them better court help. Those initiatives must also be reflected in social work and ensure that the rights of women and children are upheld.

We must resolve to stop violence against women and children. Although I have reflected on where we are going next, which is the right thing to do, we should never be complacent in our actions to tackle systemic problems of violence against women and children. Because we have invested and continue to do so, levels of funding to tackle violence against women and ensure that victims receive the support they need are at record levels.

I understand that, between 2015 and 2017 alone, £24 million has been invested from the equalities portfolio to support a range of projects and initiatives, including a range of front-line specialist services working with women and children who have experienced domestic abuse. That has come after the announcement, in March 2015, of an additional £20 million from the Scottish Government, to be invested over the period 2015 to 2018 in a range of measures to tackle all forms of such violence and to put in place better support for victims. It has also meant a boost in resources to courts and prosecutors by £2.4 million each year, to reduce court waiting times for domestic abuse cases, to ensure that there are no undue delays. That attitude should also be reflected in the courts, where women should be listened to.

The last area that I wish to look at is the one that I began with: recognising the wording of the motion. As we know, 25 November was the international day for the elimination of violence against women and marked the beginning of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, which is an international campaign that originated from the first women’s global leadership institute. Let the chamber say clearly that violence against women, girls and children, in any form, has no place in our vision for a strong, safe, successful Scotland. A society in which there is violence against women does not reflect the country of equality that we aspire to become. Regardless of the form that it takes, violence against women and girls can have both an immediate and a long-lasting impact on the women, children and young people directly involved. The equally safe programme places increased priority upon primary prevention.

To conclude, taking such an approach demands that Scottish society as a whole—beginning with our Parliament today and spreading out across the country—says clearly that we embrace equality and mutual respect, that together we reject all forms of violence against women, girls and children, and that women, girls and children should thrive as equal citizens socially, culturally, economically and politically.

Photo of Oliver Mundell Oliver Mundell Conservative

Listening to today’s debate, it is clear that we are united by our desire wholly and thoroughly to eliminate violence against women and girls and to work towards a Scotland in which everyone, regardless of their race, age, gender or sexuality, can live free from the fear of violence and discrimination. Unfortunately, however, that is not the reality in which we live at the moment. As the Scottish Government’s strategy has brought to light, violence against women and girls is still very much an issue, and it is one that we must continually work to eradicate and prevent at its roots.

As the strategy points out, women remain much more likely than men to experience serious forms of sexual assault and harassment. For example, 8 per cent of all adults in Scotland have experienced at least one type of sexual assault since the age of 16, but that statistic consists of 13 per cent of adult women and just 2 per cent of men. It is upsetting that younger women are also more susceptible to gender-based violence, with one in three 13 to 17-year-olds reporting some form of sexual violence from a partner in a study by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. We must work to protect all members of our society from harm, thinking about both support for victims and prevention, which is the only way in which we will stop such abhorrent crimes from occurring in the first place.

Equally safe is a bold statement of intent and a step in the right direction in its focus on prevention and the cultural shift that it demands. The strategy’s recognition of gender inequality and societal attitudes as root causes of the problem is both a necessary and a welcome step on the path to eliminating violence against women and girls.

Unfortunately, societal attitudes are not as progressive as we would hope, and some remain truly shocking

. For example, only three in five people in Scotland think that a woman is not at all to blame for being raped if she wears revealing clothes or is very drunk, and as many as 5 per cent of those surveyed in the 2015 ScotCen survey thought that the woman is entirely to blame for the crime if she is very drunk.

Another harrowing example from the same survey is that sexual assault was thought to be less serious when it is perpetrated by a partner or husband than when it is perpetrated by a stranger, with 88 per cent of respondents saying that the rape of a woman by a man she has just met is very seriously wrong compared to only 74 per cent saying the same thing when asked about a husband raping his wife.

Photo of John Mason John Mason Scottish National Party

I do not know whether the member saw it, but the Traverse Theatre brought a production to the Parliament about what men say about women, which was equally shocking. Does the member have any practical suggestions for how we—especially as men within this place—can make progress on that issue?

Photo of Oliver Mundell Oliver Mundell Conservative

The biggest thing that we can do as men is call out that kind of behaviour publicly when we see it and work on a cross-party basis, as we are doing in today’s debate, to make it clear that such behaviour is not acceptable in our country and that people who behave in that way do not have the support of ourselves or of society.

Having said that, I recognise that some things are getting better. Young people are less likely to victim blame, which points towards societal progression. Reporting rates for crimes involving violence against women and girls are rising, which is unfortunate, but we are making progress on a global scale. Movements such as the #MeToo campaign are helping to create an environment in which women feel more comfortable speaking out about their experiences. The fact that there has been marked improvement, however, does not mean that we can afford to rest on our laurels, as there will always be more that we can do to ensure that women and girls are protected from gender-based violence.

One issue that is close to my heart is the inequality in services and resources related to violence against women and girls in more rural areas of Scotland. A number of local organisations such as the Dumfries and Galloway domestic abuse and violence against women partnership are doing good work in my constituency. Such organisations are working hard, but they need more support to ensure that women who live in more rural areas of our country have the same support and access to services as women who live in more urban communities.

I welcome the fact that an August 2017 national scoping exercise of advocacy services for victims of violence against women and girls that the Scottish Government conducted openly identified some geographical gaps and noted that the urban-rural split was one of the key issues facing service provision. Women and girls in such areas face additional barriers to receiving help such as in having to travel for forensic examinations and in trying to maintaining confidentiality in small communities where everyone knows everyone. In some rural communities, there is also often little access to advocacy groups for some forms of violence against women and girls, such as human trafficking, prostitution and violence that specifically targets those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. That is a particular problem in areas in which there are limited specialist advocacy services.

Although it is commendable that violence against women and girls is being treated like the grave and harrowing issue that it is, and although things have been improving, more needs to be done to ensure that every woman in Scotland has access to the help that she needs regardless of how rural or urban a location she lives in. Until such issues are addressed, it will be impossible to ensure that Scotland is equally safe for all women.

Photo of Bob Doris Bob Doris Scottish National Party

On Saturday last, I had the privilege of speaking at the women’s centre in north-west Glasgow, at an event to mark the launch of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. I turned up with my wife and my wee boy, not in my capacity as an MSP but just as a member of the community supporting a local event. Cameron enjoyed the face painting, the bubbles and the goodie bag, and we had a lovely time there. It was a pleasant and humbling surprise when I was asked to say a few words at the event on a day that was in celebration of the empowerment of women.

The theme that had been chosen was a celebration of women’s strength, success and roles. On the walls, there were 20-plus pictures of women from the Maryhill area who have made huge contributions to the local community, including female leaders past and present. Many more women could have filled those walls, but it was wonderful to see.

I felt unusually sheepish and unsure about speaking, given that advances in female equality and empowerment are not usually—or ever—well served by middle-aged white men bumping their gums. However, I was asked to speak and it was a privilege to say a few words. The centre’s chairwoman reassured me that it was important that I spoke and that men played their part. She said that the centre welcomed and respected men, despite many of the patrons having had turbulent and distressing experiences. To be fair, I know the staff and volunteers at the centre well—they do amazing work—but the reassurance from the chairwoman about the appropriateness of my saying a few words was welcome in the circumstances.

On reflection, that was a bit silly of me because, if this afternoon’s debate has shown me anything—I did not know what I was going to say until I came into the chamber and listened to the debate—it is that I have a duty to show my solidarity with the women and girls who, for many generations, have suffered abuse and violence. I also have a duty to challenge my own complacency in thinking, because I am not a perpetrator and do not see the abuse, that everything must be okay. Because of my constituency case load, I know that that does not stack up, so I have to tackle my complacency. Further, I have a duty to pay tribute to those who are leading the fight in my local area to make people’s lives better.

That experience also allowed me, ahead of this afternoon’s debate, to reflect on the role of men more generally in the context of the campaign to end violence against women. In a powerful speech, Ash Denham called on us to turn our attention to the men who rape and hit women, who buy children or who abuse and are violent to females. The learning point for me from this afternoon’s debate is the converse of that—it is that we should turn our attention to the many men who do not carry out any of that abuse. Gillian Martin pointed to the boys who do not do that and to what they must do in order to play their part in society. We must turn our attention to the men who say that they do not abuse and ask them what they are doing to tackle the problem that exists because some men do.

We often see the white ribbon campaign as being a symbol of that approach. The white ribbon campaign is wonderful—this is no reflection on that campaign—but I will wear another ribbon for world AIDS day when I attend First Minister’s question time on Thursday. Wearing a ribbon becomes the thing that people do when there are campaigns, but wearing a ribbon does not mean that they have engaged with the problem or the issue. The white ribbon does not challenge or call out unacceptable behaviour, so men—me included—must find the space and the environment to do that all year round. That is my challenge from this afternoon’s debate.

In relation to the white ribbon campaign, I should mention that Glasgow Kelvin College, in Springburn, in my constituency, did something exceptional in May this year. The college signed up to become an accredited white ribbon college on the basis of not just signing a pledge but carrying out on-the-ground activism. The college engaged with staff, students and the local community and did something meaningful for the white ribbon campaign instead of just putting a ribbon on a lapel to show support but no more. I give credit to Glasgow Kelvin College for that.

Every man has a responsibility to do all that he can to make a difference, and I am setting myself a challenge. Rather than just turn up at an event at the women’s centre in north-west Glasgow next year—I am sure that it will hold an event, as the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence comes around every year—I will organise, shape and support a number of events in the communities that I represent at which men can speak up in support of ending gender-based violence against women and girls. If I manage to do that, rather than just make a speech in a debate, as I have done this afternoon—I hope that it has been a humble speech, in which I have felt my way along—I will perhaps have done something that makes a bit of a difference.

I have really enjoyed the debate.

Photo of Claire Baker Claire Baker Labour

The 16 days of activism for the elimination of violence against women and girls campaign was started in 1991 by the center for women’s global leadership. In recognising gender-based violence as a human rights issue, over a couple of weeks the campaign encourages activity at local, national and international levels.

This afternoon’s debate has been wide ranging, encouraging and passionate. Members have made perceptive and persuasive arguments on commercial sexual exploitation, FGM, forced marriage and education on consent. The debate has given Parliament an opportunity to add its voice to the campaign to end violence against women and girls. Members have spoken about the violence and abuse that are suffered by women and girls here in Scotland and around the world, some of which we see daily on the evening news, but much of which is hidden or so ingrained in society that it is hidden in full view.

Over these 16 days, we can also see examples of courage, challenge, resistance and calls for change from men and women and boys and girls who do not accept the way the world is, who do not accept that one gender is inferior and who do not accept the prevalence of violence and abuse in our everyday existence.

We received a number of briefings for the debate, including from Engender, the Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust, Children 1st, Barnardo’s, the NSPCC and White Ribbon Scotland; I would like to thank those organisations for their expertise and the contribution that their knowledge has made to the debate.

I want to highlight some of the speeches that have been made. Alex Cole-Hamilton and Pauline McNeill talked about sexual harassment and emphasised that it is about the exercise of power and status rather than sex. That is the context in which we are having the debate—it is about how we value women, how women are represented and how we change our culture. I think that it was Alex Cole-Hamilton who talked about the importance of the way in which we bring up our children and said that we have a responsibility in that regard.

The points that were made about John Finnie’s proposed member’s bill, which seeks to give children equal protection under the law, are relevant to the debate but, as I mentioned in my opening speech, it is very difficult to take a non-gendered approach to modern parenting when so much of the marketing and commercialism that we deal with as parents are so gendered. It is very difficult to buy children’s clothes or toys that are not gendered, and I think that that trend has increased in recent years. That means that the difference between the genders is emphasised, rather than the fact that they are equal.

Pauline McNeill brought a global perspective to the debate when she talked about the millions of girls who are being forced into child marriage.

The recent debate about sexual harassment led me to question whether we are experiencing a shift. Do we have a golden opportunity in our time? There is a feeling that the story moves on and that something else catches the eye of the world. It is bizarre that we have been having a discussion about sexual harassment and assault while Donald Trump is the US president. We must continue to be vocal in working to close the leadership gap.

Political leadership is important. There is a feeling that those who control the way in which we learn our news and the forums in which we have such public debates are moving on to other issues, and it is important that we continue to highlight the damage that sexual harassment, sexual violence and sexual abuse cause to our society, and the way in which they hold us back. Pauline McNeill mentioned the steps that Macron has taken in France. In Canada, Justin Trudeau is very vocal about being a feminist. We need to hear more of that, and we need to increase the extent to which women’s voices are heard in that dialogue.

Adam Tomkins effectively highlighted our responsibility to provide care and support for all refugees and recognised that many are here because they are fleeing violence. Women and girls who come from other countries that are war torn or from situations of great conflict have often experienced sexual violence and assault. In such situations, rape is used as a means of control and as a weapon. Our services do not always recognise the potential additional barriers around language and cultural understanding and we could put greater focus on that.

Rhoda Grant, Ash Denham and Ruth Maguire made powerful and perceptive speeches on commercial sexual exploitation. Ruth Maguire made some strong points about the need for radical change and her belief that there is a weakness in the delivery plan. She questioned how the document can recognise that commercial sexual exploitation is violence, yet say nothing about allowing the buyer to continue to exercise that right. The current legal system does not criminalise the buyer of sex, but how does that sit with the arguments that we are making about violence against women and girls? The arguments that we need a more robust and effective response and that we are not doing enough to prevent women from being exploited were well made.

Rhoda Grant made strong points about society’s mixed messages and how commercial exploitation sits alongside arguments that women should be treated not as commodities but as equals and valued human beings. How can we promote those arguments for equality if we can see that society tolerates such behaviour? Her points about Ireland and other countries having changed the way in which they treat commercial sexual exploitation show that Scotland is in danger of falling behind and could become vulnerable to an increased level of trafficking because it is seen as a soft option by those who want to exploit women and girls in such a way.

Ash Denham made a very effective speech about human trafficking and recognising women and girls as a commonplace commodity in a global context. She described the horrific experience of the 26 dead girls—it is shocking to think of them being just teenagers of 14 to 18—and it is hard to imagine the horror of the exploitation that they had experienced and how cheap a girl’s life is, particularly given that the incident happened off the coast of Italy, where many of us go on holiday. It was a very powerful speech.

All three members spoke about commercial sexual exploitation not being inevitable or excusable and said that Scotland must do more to disrupt the industry, recognise such exploitation as a crime and stop the trafficking and slavery.

Oliver Mundell made interesting points about public attitudes to rape and victims of sexual assault and how people see women as responsible for those crimes. The figures around public perception are shocking. I understand that such public perception in relation to a woman’s clothing or inebriation levels related to both genders: the survey was not exclusive to men—both men and women responded to it. That highlights how difficult it can be to pursue cases through the criminal courts where they are often heard in front of a jury, given the number of prejudices that people hold regarding sexual assault.

Several members mentioned the increase in reports of rape, violence and sexual assault against women. We need a justice system that fully responds to that. Last week’s report by the Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland highlighted the barriers that are faced by survivors in getting justice through the courts. Survivors found that giving evidence in court was a very negative experience and some described it as “worse than being raped”. We must look at extending measures to support survivors and victims.

Finally, today we heard the news that David Goodwillie has lost his appeal in the civil rape case against him. That is testament to the courage of Denise Clair in fighting for justice for nearly seven years. She had to go to a civil court to get justice. That is not acceptable. Following that case, we must consider how we can ensure that no other women have to pursue justice using that route, which is not appropriate for rape cases.

This afternoon’s debate has been extremely worth while and a good expression of the Parliament’s commitment to the issue.

Photo of Michelle Ballantyne Michelle Ballantyne Conservative

I am pleased to close the debate for the Conservatives. I have sat here and listened to everyone’s speeches and heard the passion and emotion in their words. That highlights that gender-based violence is not party political or an issue for one country, but something that affects everyone, everywhere.

I was lucky. I grew up in a safe household and I was brought up to be a confident young lady. I was never made to feel that being female was any less than being male. However, in the 55 years for which I have been alive, I can think of numerous people I know who have experienced rape or torture, or who have been victims of honour crimes—like other members, I hate that expression.

I am sad to say that one of my early experiences as a student nurse was with a lady who came in to give birth and who begged us not to discharge her. Her child was to be taken straight to the airport and abroad to experience the horror of female genital mutilation. Back then, there was nothing that we could do. We delayed her discharge as long as we could but, eventually, we had to let her go. I had the very sad job of taking that baby down to the car. As you can hear, I still feel really emotional about it, even now.

We have moved on, but not as far as any of us would like. Today is another step towards making Scotland equally safe for women and young girls, and the cabinet secretary has introduced some of the steps that we in Scotland will take. If we do that, I hope that FGM will never happen again in Scotland and that we never allow anybody to be taken out of Scotland to undergo that horror.

One reason why things have changed is that we have changed the stigma—not as far as we would like to, but it is easier now for women to come forward and tell what has happened. The police have done an immense amount of work to make a safer environment for a person who has been raped. However, as Oliver Mundell highlighted, the environment is not always as good in some rural areas, where people have to travel further and where identity cannot be hidden. We still have things to do.

I hope that the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill is going in the right direction. As it travels through Parliament, I hope that we will iron out the points that we debated the other week and that we make sure that nobody who comes forward and talks about what has happened ends up going home still in fear.

By recognising in the Parliament the 16 days of action against gender-based violence, we are showing how much our attitudes are changing and that we, as a country, must take not just a moral but a legislative stance. We have heard about some of the laws that have been introduced across the UK and those that we want to help to agree to in Scotland. Adam Tomkins spoke about the many female refugees who have sought sanctuary in Scotland. They often come with added vulnerabilities, having been abused or exploited even before they arrive here. Cultural and linguistic barriers have caused difficulties in providing assistance to those who need it the most. Adam Tomkins highlighted that we must re-examine the issue to make sure that we give adequate support to those victims.

The UK Government legislated in 2015 to protect young girls against female genital mutilation. I hope that the cabinet secretary has listened to today’s comments and that she will take forward some of the actions to ensure that Scotland legislates in the same way.

Annie Wells spoke passionately about the worrying trends that have grown in Scotland over the past year—domestic violence is on the rise and the number of rapes and attempted rapes has increased. Those are statistics that we should worry about. Such behaviour is not only unacceptable but constitutes a violation of basic human rights. Any increase in the number of incidents is to be noted with concern and should prompt action from the Scottish Government. Annie Wells also drew attention to some of the excellent local projects, such as the Archway project in Glasgow, which she called to be replicated. There are many good campaigns in Scotland, and we need to ensure that they have the necessary funding. Our support for them should not be annual, so that they do not know from one year to the next whether they will be funded; they need to know that they can offer continuity of support to the women and children whom they help.

Gordon Lindhurst featured some of the positive work that the UK Government has done in the field to eradicate violence against women and children. There are 127 programmes that address violence against women and girls, there is new domestic abuse legislation and, of course, FGM protection orders have been introduced. In many respects, the UK is ahead of Scotland in this area, and the Scottish Government should look to adopt similar measures if it is serious about the matter. However, I heard what the cabinet secretary said, and I believe that she will work to do that. I will watch to ensure that that happens.

We have heard a lot today about violence against women and girls, including impassioned speeches by Claire Baker, Kate Forbes and Rhoda Grant. I want it to be remembered that the vast majority of men are equally horrified by the behaviour of some men. Rhoda Grant made that point, which is really important. We must not get to the stage at which we vilify all men as perpetrators, but we must ensure that we identify those who are, hold them in abhorrence and ensure that they are duly punished for their attitudes and the crimes that they have committed.

John Finnie spoke eloquently about how gender-based violence affects the whole family and the need for judiciary training to ensure that victims do not suffer further victimisation through the justice system. We are making slow progress on that, but there is progress. John Finnie is absolutely right. We must ensure that those who sit on the benches and work in the courts understand how horrific it feels to have gone through that violence and then to be explored in a courtroom. We must ensure that people understand what that means and that they use the right language, have the right attitudes, and use the right kind of questioning so that they do not make things worse rather than better.

Alex Cole-Hamilton spoke very well about the need to change the culture and ensure that our children understand respectful relationships and have good role models. A lot of work is being done on that in schools, and I welcome the extra money that is going in to ensure that that is enhanced. We must ensure that the attitudes and cultures that underpin the decision making of our future adults are based in a good, respectful gender culture.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

Will you come to a close, please?

Photo of Michelle Ballantyne Michelle Ballantyne Conservative

Yes.

Bob Doris spoke very well when he said that, as a man, he has the duty to show solidarity with those who have suffered, to challenge his own complacency and to pay tribute to those who contrive to fight to make things better. I use his words to close. That is not just a duty for men; it is a duty for all of us. Bob Doris framed that duty very well in his comments.

Photo of Angela Constance Angela Constance Scottish National Party

This debate is, of course, a very important opportunity to discuss one of the most serious human rights violations and to highlight the cross-party consensus on the issue. I have often said that one of the gains of devolution has been the cross-party consensus that has been built over the lifetime of the Parliament. Everyone who has spoken in the debate has made an excellent contribution.

I do not want to be too complacent or congratulatory, of course, because I am conscious that we can be guilty of operating in our own institutional bubble in the Parliament. One of the joys of chairing the joint strategic board on equally safe with a full range of stakeholders is that they often remind politicians to get out of our bubble. The strength of some of the participation projects that feed into the equally safe strategy has demonstrated that there are many people out there who are less than aware of the work that we are doing on equally safe.

Members across the chamber have been particularly thoughtful, reflective and at times challenging in the debate. I think that that is partly because of recent events. As someone said, from Hollywood to Holyrood, no institution or part of our society is immune from the scourge of sexual harassment or other horrors.

With its publication today, we have had the opportunity to get our teeth into aspects of the equally safe delivery plan, which outlines 118 actions to be taken over this session of Parliament. Adam Tomkins, Annie Wells, Kate Forbes, John Finnie, Pauline McNeill and many others were right to remind us of the action that we need to take at home and abroad, and they mentioned the international efforts of both the UK Government and the Scottish Government. That, for anyone who is interested, is reflected on page 21 of the delivery plan.

Members were right to highlight the challenges of going further and faster with legislation and safeguards around how we respond to female genital mutilation. In the debate that we had earlier this year, I spoke of this Government’s commitment to take further action over this session of Parliament. We are looking closely at the experience south of the border, but it will not necessarily be a shift and lift. We genuinely want to look and learn, and we will always incorporate what the evidence shows works well and effectively.

Another major theme of the debate has been the need to guard against survivors being retraumatised by their experience of justice services or other services. It is imperative that our services are always victim centred and trauma informed. The additional investment in Rape Crisis Scotland of £1.85 million will help with additional advocacy and will extend services to Orkney and Shetland, picking up on some of the issues that Oliver Mundell mentioned with regard to rural and more remote areas. I can also tell Michelle Ballantyne that one of the reasons why I was absolutely determined that the equality budget would indeed incorporate three-year funding is that I want organisations the length and breadth of Scotland that are supporting women and tackling violence against women and girls to concentrate on what they do well, which is supporting women and their children, as opposed to continuously filling out forms.

My final point with regard to justice services is that there is an important task force, chaired by the chief medical officer for Scotland, to ensure that we are constantly improving services for children and adults who have experienced rape or sexual assault.

Rhoda Grant, Ruth Maguire, Claire Baker, Ash Denham and others spoke powerfully about criminal sexual exploitation and prostitution and about the relationship that commercial sexual exploitation has with trafficking. Ash Denham spoke powerfully about those children lost at sea, who had been victims of human trafficking and other horrors, and Ruth Maguire spoke about the actions that we are taking to reduce harm and to help women exit prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation, and about the importance of raising awareness. What I take from today’s debate is that there is clearly an appetite for further action to tackle the root causes of that behaviour. I can tell Parliament that, although the research that was published earlier this year was inconclusive and—to be candid—we as a Government have not reached some final conclusions on that research, it is fair to say that our work is not over and we will not be looking the other way.

Another important matter that was raised is that, although we know that women of all backgrounds and ages experience violence, women and girls from minority ethnic backgrounds or from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community, or women who have a disability, can be at greater risk of violence.

We will work with others on the needs of refugees and asylum seekers, and one of my other responsibilities is to review and implement the new Scots strategy. The UK contract on asylum accommodation and support is also important in that regard, and it is not without its controversies.

Our strategic approach is drawn from the United Nations definition of gender-based violence, recognising that it is a function of gender inequality. That is to say, it is an abuse of male power and privilege that women and girls experience violence and abuse quite simply because they are women and girls and because they continue to occupy a subordinate position in our society in relation to men.

Our equally safe delivery plan will be the cornerstone of our efforts to work together to eradicate violence against women and girls, by changing the law, investing record levels of funding, taking action to support victims and tackle perpetrators, and tackling the underlying attitudes and inequalities that create the conditions for violence against women and girls.

Ultimately, we have to prevent violence and abuse from happening in the first place. If we are to do that we must recognise that progress is never permanent; our efforts must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if progress is to be sustained and the position improved.

I commend the equally safe delivery plan and the motion to the Parliament.