Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 01 February 2017
01 Feb 2017 · S5 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Female Genital Mutilation
I welcome John Finnie’s intervention, and I recognise his contribution and our shared goals in this area.
It is only by incorporating the UNCRC into Scots law that a rights-based approach to public policy will be achieved, and it is only by adopting such an approach that we can ensure that we protect women and girls on our shores and, by extension, offer an example to the world of how rights matter.
Silent indignation on this matter is a futility that we can no longer afford or indulge. We need to protect and empower, and to bring justice to the guilty and the complicit. Coretta Scott King said:
“Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.”
However, on this bloody tradition, no generation has ever seen freedom or satisfaction prevail; it is time that we let ours be the first.
16:12In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Linda Fabiani)
SNP
The next item of business is a debate on motion S5M-03761, in the name of Angela Constance, Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities...
The Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities (Angela Constance)
SNP
On behalf of the Scottish Government, I am pleased to open the debate on this important matter. Today, ahead of the international day of zero tolerance for ...
Annie Wells (Glasgow) (Con)
Con
There can be no justification for female genital mutilation, and I welcome the Scottish Government’s efforts at home as well as the UK Government’s efforts a...
Mary Fee (West Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
I thank the Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities for her motion highlighting the important work that is being done to tackle and...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
We now move to the open contributions. I remind members who wish to speak to make sure that they have pressed their button. I am trying hard not to stare at ...
Ruth Maguire (Cunninghame South) (SNP)
SNP
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in such an important debate, as we look ahead to 6 February as the international day of zero tolerance for female ...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
I call Gordon Lindhurst, to be followed by Clare Haughey. 15:42
Gordon Lindhurst (Lothian) (Con)
Con
Thank you, Presiding Officer. “But we have no slaves in Scotland, and mothers cannot sell their bairns.” So decided the Court of Session in Edinburgh almos...
Clare Haughey (Rutherglen) (SNP)
SNP
The term “FGM” is a sanitised one that allows us to talk about female genital mutilation without dealing with each of those three words. Mutilation of young ...
Pauline McNeill (Glasgow) (Lab)
Lab
Child marriage and honour killing are just two elements of the wider systematic subjugation, exploitation and domination of women and girls around the world,...
John Finnie (Highlands and Islands) (Green)
Green
Yesterday, as part of the work done by small groups of members in the Justice Committee, my colleague Mary Fee and I took evidence from a gentleman in his 50...
Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (LD)
LD
I start with a declaration of interest: before I came to this place, I sat on the ministerial task force on violence against women and girls that was deliver...
John Finnie
Green
If that is how what I said came over, that is not what I meant; I meant that it is not exclusively a question of legislating. We can pass all the laws we wan...
Alex Cole-Hamilton
LD
I welcome John Finnie’s intervention, and I recognise his contribution and our shared goals in this area. It is only by incorporating the UNCRC into Scots l...
Tom Arthur (Renfrewshire South) (SNP)
SNP
I am grateful to have the opportunity to participate in this afternoon’s debate ahead of the international day of zero tolerance for female genital mutilatio...
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Christine Grahame)
SNP
I call Miles Briggs, to be followed by Kenneth Gibson. Mr Gibson will be the last speaker in the open debate. 16:18
Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Con)
Con
As other members have done, I welcome today’s debate and the significant degree of consensus that has been demonstrated around the chamber, which perhaps emp...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
Before we move to the next speaker, I say that Ms Lennon has extra time and has up to eight minutes for her speech, and Oliver Mundell has a bit of extra tim...
Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (SNP)
SNP
I, too, welcome the debate, which gives valuable time in the chamber to an issue that so many of us have long been deeply concerned about. It is 16 years sin...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
Thank you, Mr Gibson. Before we move on to the closing speeches, I note that Gordon Lindhurst is not present for the summing up and closing speeches. I am t...
Monica Lennon (Central Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
Thank you, Presiding Officer. I join colleagues throughout the chamber in welcoming the opportunity to recognise the international day of zero tolerance for...
Oliver Mundell (Dumfriesshire) (Con)
Con
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to close today’s debate for the Scottish Conservatives. We can all agree that it has been an extremely moving and powerf...
Angela Constance
SNP
I thank everyone who contributed to the debate, which has been consensual and respectful, as Alex Cole-Hamilton said. There has been recognition across the p...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
Not always happily, I think.
Angela Constance
SNP
Gordon Lindhurst gave a unique historical perspective. At one point I wondered where he was going with his contribution, but he made some important points ab...