Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 26 November 2020
Every three days in the United Kingdom, one woman is killed by a man. That figure has been unchanged for a decade. This afternoon, I have four minutes in which to contribute to our Parliament’s debate on making Scotland equally safe, marking the annual international day for the elimination of violence against women. With those murdered women and their families very much on my mind, I hope that members will forgive me if I do not use my time to highlight the good work that is on-going; instead, I will get straight to the point
Scotland is not equally safe, and four minutes is not enough time in which to do justice to all the women and girls who have been subjected to men’s violence in our unequal society. In Scotland, too many women still face the burning injustice of workplace sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, so-called honour crimes, sexual assault, rape, trafficking, stalking and prostitution. Globally, women and girls are being refused access to education and are trapped in conflicts in which rape is used as a weapon of war. The number of sex-selected abortions is rising, the number of deaths relating to pregnancy and childbirth is needlessly high, and women and girls are prevented from making deeply personal choices about their reproductive healthcare.
We know that inequality is both a cause and a consequence of those abuses of the rights of women and girls. We also know that to end such human rights abuses—to end the violence and the killing—there must be action and investment, legislation and policy, and action on the ground in all areas.
It is clear to me that we understand the continuum of women’s inequality and subsequent male violence, so we must never kid ourselves on that picking off palatable challenges to address bit by bit will be enough to address the problem. The truth, which I acknowledge is uncomfortable for some but it is the truth nonetheless, is that as long as female bodies are objectified, commodified and reduced to something to be bought and sold, used and traded, we will not have equality and we will not have justice. Prostitution is violence. Despite what a vocal minority might say, that is not a controversial position to hold. In policy terms, the Scottish Government’s equally safe strategy recognises that violence. It is unambiguous and it has been for years. The laws of our country must be equally clear; that they remain unaligned is wholly unacceptable.
I know that this is not easy; there is a vocal pro-prostitution lobby in this country. Men’s demand for sexual access to women is big business. However, the fact that something is not easy has not stopped us before. It should be to our collective shame that Scotland at the moment is a place where our legislative framework means that criminal gangs profiting from the sexual exploitation of women trafficked from outwith this country and within it to meet male demand can hide in plain sight, using so-called adult services websites.
Even a cursory glance at one of those sites would show you that in this city, right now, as we stand in this albeit quite empty but warm and comfortable chamber, there are women who have been trafficked here and who are being subjected to abuse, violence and humiliation to satisfy the demand of a minority of men who wish to purchase sexual access to women and girls. It is a minority of men but the damage that that minority of men do is pervasive, impacting our whole society and putting all women and girls in harm’s way.
This Parliament has all the powers that it needs to take legislative action and end, not mitigate, the serious harms and abhorrent abuses of human rights that commercial sexual exploitation causes women and girls. It is beyond time that we got on with doing just that.
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