Hansard

I am sure that we all agree with the words of the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who said:

“Violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable and never tolerable.”

Yet violence against women is still a truly global issue. It affects all communities, all races and people of all religions and none. According to the UN, one in three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence in her lifetime. Worldwide, more than 700 million women who are alive today were married as children. Of those women, more than one in three—around 250 million—were married before they were 15.

It is a global problem, but as other members have said, it has manifestations on our own doorstep. Research shows that a staggering 43 per cent of women in the 28 European Union member states have experienced some form of psychological violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. In the most recent girls’ attitudes survey by Girlguiding UK, 59 per cent of girls aged 13 to 20 had experienced sexual harassment at school, college or work within the previous year. Those statistics are truly shocking, and progress towards the elimination of violence against women and girls is awfully slow.

The theme of this year’s 16 days of activism is prevention. No one is born knowing how to discriminate—it is a behaviour that is learned. Unfortunately, it is also behaviour that is encouraged—by societies, by peers and sometimes even by family members. It is a widely acknowledged fact that the key to prevention is to start early, and to focus efforts on young children—girls and boys. The equally safe strategy recognises that. It says:

“Prevention challenges the notion that violence is inevitable or acceptable.”

It is important that we focus on boys because they are less likely to respect women and girls if they are not encouraged to treat them as equals. It is important to focus on girls because they are less likely to realise that they are experiencing abuse if they are used to being treated differently because they are female. The curriculum for excellence, with its focus on relationships, sexual health and parenting, will help to tackle some of the issues, but we need to increase the prevention messages.

A recent report by YWCA Scotland, “Status of Young Women in Scotland”, included a number of quotations from young women. One said:

““There are subtle differences for women. For example there was an attack in The Meadows [Edinburgh] and all the guidance and recommendations from the police etc. was aimed at girls, asking them to change their behaviour. It’s this focus on the victim not the perpetrator, couched in ‘it’s for your own safety’.”

Another said:

“My brother is younger than me but he’s allowed to stay out much later and to make his own way home. My parents say the different rules are for my own safety.”

“It’s for your own safety”: six words that take the focus away from the perpetrator to the victim, or the potential victim; six words that tell girls that if something were to happen to them, it would be their own fault. Those societal attitudes are a problem and a major barrier to the work of prevention.

I note that “Equally Safe” says that one of the strategy’s initial areas of focus will be primary prevention and, in particular,

“identifying additional ways of addressing the systematic inequality, attitudes and assumptions that give rise to violence and abusive behaviour, and scoping the costs associated with this activity in time for the next Spending Review.”

I would be grateful for an update on that point from the minister in his closing speech.

A 2010 survey across 15 EU countries asked whether women’s provocative behaviour was a cause of domestic violence against women. On average, just over half agreed with that statement. The figure for the United Kingdom was 63 per cent. It is shameful that so many still believe that domestic violence is caused by the victim. Further research shows that across the EU one in four victims of sexual assault does not contact the police or any other organisation, because of feelings of shame and embarrassment. It should be the perpetrators who feel shame and embarrassment, but those are the attitudes that we are up against. Those are the attitudes that prevent progress on eliminating violence against girls and women.

The advent of the internet has made the challenges even greater. A recent UN report on combating online violence against women and girls said that an estimated 73 per cent of women have been exposed to some form of violence or abuse online. With increased information exchange comes a more interconnected world, but also true horrors. I will name but a few: online abuse, scores of vile images and videos of child abuse, online stalking and so-called revenge porn—an issue that Scotland hopes to tackle through the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Bill. Unfortunately, the internet has allowed perpetrators of violence to find new ways to perpetrate their violence. New methods of violence require new solutions.

It is clear that a lot more still needs to be done, but I commend the work that is already being undertaken by the police, governments and local, national and international organisations.