Hansard

Perhaps they are.

When the Parliament was established, human rights and equality were written into its proceedings from the outset. The Parliament was established to represent and serve all the people of Scotland.

The Forced Marriage etc (Protection and Jurisdiction) (Scotland) Bill is emblematic of the Parliament’s principles. It was introduced to counteract one of the worst violations of human rights that can be perpetrated on a person. At its heart is an insistence on freedom of choice, which is essential to any meaningful concept of equality.

The bill was designed to tackle a crime that happens to only a small number of people in Scotland, which in itself makes the bill even more important. There have been occasions when critics of the Parliament accused us of using legislation as a sledgehammer to crack a variety of nuts, but just because a problem affects a small number of people, that does not make it insignificant. On the contrary, the smaller the number of victims, the more vulnerable the victims are and the more vital it is that their elected representatives step up on their behalf. When we decide today to legislate against forced marriage, we will give strength to people who were powerless and give protection under the law to people who previously lacked such protection.

During the Equal Opportunities Committee’s consideration of the bill, we discussed the imperative of avoiding the perception that the bill is directed at a particular ethnic group or culture. I will say a couple of things about that. First, forced marriage is not about religion, culture or race; it is a crime. It is a complex crime, to be sure, which stems from old and deep-seated attitudes about the role of women and girls—and sometimes, as we heard from Marlyn Glen, boys—but, as Burns said many years ago,

“The Rights of Woman merit some attention.”

Forced marriage happens in society and within families, but it is a crime nonetheless. What is more, it seldom happens in isolation. Almost by its nature, it is a precursor to other crimes: child abuse, rape, domestic violence and sometimes even murder. Those crimes and their victims must be pre-eminent in our minds, and I applaud the Scottish Government for sticking to those facts in introducing the bill.

Nonetheless, there are complexities of which we must be aware, such as the need to make clear the distinction between arranged and forced marriage. Other speakers have addressed that point, so I will not go into it.

I thank all the witnesses who came forward. I especially thank the clerks, who tried hard to ensure that we had a cross-cultural group of witnesses. We could not find some of the evidence that we needed even though we knew that it existed, which shows how deep-seated some of the issues are. The clerks tried hard to ensure that we had witnesses to provide that evidence.

I also thank the committee members for their diligence in scrutinising the evidence, which was helpful for me.

At stage 2, we linked the bill with the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011, which is a particular interest of mine. When we passed the 2011 act, I was concerned that, although forced marriage was a ground for referral, the term was not defined. I thank the minister for lodging amendments at stage 2 that fixed that anomaly and will bring the two pieces of legislation together to ensure that young people are supported in a welfare-based system. That further strengthens the approach of the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament to protecting children and young people.

I am very proud that the Parliament can come together to ensure that we continue to enshrine human rights in our laws. That shows our Parliament working at its best.

I said earlier that choice is essential to a meaningful definition of equality. If I had to pick one word to sum up what the Forced Marriage etc (Protection and Jurisdiction) (Scotland) Bill is about, it would be choice. The bill will write clearly into Scots law that it is an individual’s—a woman’s—choice to enter freely into a marriage or to reject it. That choice, as the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women puts it,

“is central to her life and to her dignity and equality as a human being.”

That is the core of the bill, and I commend it to the Parliament.



09:57