 The next item of business is a debate on motion 2820 in the name of Angela Constance on recognising 16 days of action to end violence against women and girls. May I ask all those who wish to speak in the debate to press your request to speak buttons please? I call on Angela Constance to speak to you and move the motion up to 13 minutes please cabinet secretary. Gierls is a blight on our society, it's okay, thanks very much. Are you all right there? Yes, we're switched on. I'm terribly glad you're switched on cabinet secretary. For the avoidance of doubt. On all seriousness I want to start today's proceedings by making very clear statements and that statement is that violence against women and girls is indeed a blight on our society and it must not and it cannot and it will not be tolerated. It is a fundamental breach of human rights and in Scotland today I believe that this is more widely accepted than it was previously. I also believe that there is a cross-party consensus on the importance and how vital it is to tackle effectively violence against women and girls and that we have also as a country made significant progress in recent years but we all know there is much more to do to prevent and to eradicate violence against women and girls. Reflecting back, I am struck by the substantial contributions of individuals and organisations over the past years and decades, people and organisations who have brought us to this point in time. It was more than 20 years ago that Hillary Clinton told the United Nations photo world conference on women in Beijing that the issues facing women and girls are often either ignored or silenced and argued against practices against abusing women around the world. She put the issue firmly on the agenda where it has since remained when she said, if there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights once and for all. From 25 November to 10 December, the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence is a time to reflect on how we together step up the pace to turn more words into more actions and to make more progress in ending violence against women and girls here in Scotland and around the world. It is also a time for recognition of those who have been working day in, day out, year after year to keep women and children safe. In Scotland, it was one of the first countries in the world to have an action plan to tackle domestic abuse. Today, we have a strategy equally safe that is described by some as the best in Europe. Today, our police and our prosecutors are clear that they take a zero-tolerance approach to domestic abuse and indeed all forms of violence against women and girls. We are strengthening the law in this area from the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm Act passed in March that supports efforts to tackle domestic abuse and sexual violence to the forthcoming specific offence of domestic abuse that we will introduce in this parliamentary year. We will recognise domestic abuse for what it is about, power and control, pure and simply, and it will embed this understanding in the law of the land and give the police and prosecutors the powers to tackle it and to hold perpetrators to account. I very much commend those working in local women's aids organisations, the length and breadth of the country, who day in, day out support women and children who have experienced the trauma of domestic abuse. This morning, I heard about the excellent work of the national domestic abuse and forced marriage helpline being delivered by Scottish Women's Aid. I also commend the work and the network of local rape crisis centres who provide front-line support for those who have gone through this most traumatic and barbaric act. It was very privileged to attend the 40th anniversary of rape crisis Glasgow last week, which was the first in Scotland and is actually the oldest in the UK. The 16 days of action must acknowledge their accomplishments, but it is also a reminder to us that we have much further to go. We have made great strides in tackling violence against women and girls, domestic abuse, which was once seen as a matter to be hidden and kept private. It is now widely recognised for the gender-based violence and abuse that it is. There are laws, policies and funding in place to prevent it and to support survivors. In 20th century Scotland, few had even heard of female genital mutilation or forced marriage. Now, we have legislation to protect people from honour-based violence and a national action plan to prevent and eradicate female genital mutilation. Decades ago, a commonplace view was that if a woman was raped, it was her fault. Since then, we have seen a major cultural shift with rape and sexual violence. It is now overwhelmingly recognised to be one of the most important things that a woman can experience. We have strengthened the law in this area. There is now a network of effective specialist services to support victims. Although much has changed, we know that those attitudes still exist within our society. We know that some continue to believe that those rape myths that somehow the woman was asking for it, we know that some people still think that it is reasonable for a man to control his wife and treat her as his property. Women continue to be objectified in the media for sexual gratification and experience a double standard when it comes to their competence, demeanour and choice of clothing. We know that every day of every hour, women in our society experience sexism, discrimination and misogyny as they just go about their daily lives. That may paint a bleak picture, but it is right that we are open and honest about the society that we live in. We cannot pretend that everything is rosy when the experiences of women and girls and children and young people quite clearly tells us that it is not. It is the myths and attitudes that we must continue to challenge as a society and work hard to shift as a Government and as a Parliament. We need a fundamental shift in culture, which ensures that women and girls have equality of access to power, to resources, economically, culturally and politically. Earlier this week, we published a survey on the attitudes of young people, which tells us that we have work to do in this area. The broader economic structures that can constrain women need to be addressed. Occupational segregation needs to be tackled and we must do more to close the gender pay gap amongst many things. We must also tackle sexism in society through education and advancing equality. That includes tackling gender stereotypes, which can impact negatively on men too. Next week, I will attend the annual zero-tolerance right to end violence against women awards, an event that celebrates both the best and the worst of writing about women in the media. Next year, we will bring forward a delivery plan for Equally Safe to give a sharp focus to the practical actions that we can take to realise our ambitions in this agenda. I am clear that this must focus on making meaningful changes to the lives of women, girls, children and young people. I know that Parliament shares that ambition for change. Everyone in the chamber agrees that violence against women is a fundamental violation of human rights and we must do everything that we can to stop it. Is the principle that is enshrined in the Istanbul Convention, or to give it its full title, the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women in Domestic Violence, a convention supported by this Government and the UK Government who signed the convention alongside a total of 42 other countries? However, the UK Government has yet to formally ratify the Istanbul Convention. In May, I wrote to the Home Office to ask the UK Government to lay out a clear timetable for ratification and to engage with the devolved administrations in that. No response was received, so I have therefore written again to the new Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, seeking engagement on this issue so that we can take action together to ratify the convention and ensure support for the aims of the Istanbul Convention. It has been more than four years since the UK Government signed this important convention and two years since it came into force, so I am calling upon the UK Government to stop dragging their feet, confirm that they will ratify the convention and provide a clear timetable to do so and to engage with the Scottish Government on the practicalities of that. If we are all committed to ending violence against women and girls, then let us take this next step, certainly. Kezia Dugdale will be aware that the Tories amendment today asks us to acknowledge that measures are already in place to protect women and girls from violence. Does the cabinet secretary think that that sort of smacks of a degree of complacency did she think that they are going far enough? If not, why does she think that the UK Government are holding back on ratifying the convention? Angela Constance? Of course it is for the UK Government to account for its own actions, but let me be clear from a Scottish Government perspective. We have our strategy equally safe, which would broadly meet the Istanbul convention. We are not complacent. We have mapped the Istanbul convention across the actions that we are taking and equally safe. We recognise that there are two or three areas in particular that we would have to improve on. However, it is unacceptable that four years after signing the Istanbul convention that the Tories are still dragging their feet. I look forward to the response from the Conservative Party today to explain the inaction of its own Government. Perhaps, since we are focused on the Istanbul convention, I could read the quote from Marsha Scott, chief executive of Scottish Women's Aid, when she said that the Istanbul convention is probably the very best piece of violence against women policy that has been written ever anywhere. It is the culmination of years of hard work and difficult negotiations resulting in an incredible piece of policy that is often described as the codification of best practice for Government responses to victims and survivors of violence against women. The Istanbul convention is a blueprint for how we will move from small change at the margins, services that are picking up too few people, too late to a system that is designed to end domestic abuse and violence against women. She ends by saying that the UK Government has within itself grasped the opportunity to make history. We are urging them all to seize it. Certainly on those benches we are urging the UK Government to grasp history and to take us that step forward in the journey that we are all seeking to travel to eradicate and to end violence against women and girls. I now call Douglas Ross to speak to and move amendment 2820.1. Around eight minutes please, Mr Ross. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am pleased to open this afternoon's debate for the Scottish Conservatives marking 16 days of action to end violence against women and girls. This is an annual debate and as such it gives us an important opportunity to take stock of the progress that has been made over the last 12 months as well as looking at areas where progress is still needed. It goes without saying that violence against women and girls is a deeply complex and pernicious problem. In Scotland the approach to tackling this is multifaceted with a statutory response working in tandem with the excellent efforts of the third sector and grassroots organisations to support and secure justice for victims. In particular I pay tribute to the Scottish Women's Aid, an organisation that can have a transformational effect on the lives of women who have suffered at the hands of their abusers. I commend the SWA for advocating not only on behalf of women but also on behalf of children, children who are often the forgotten victims of domestic abuse. I was struck that in one single day in Scotland 859 women and 400 children and young people were supported by women's aid groups across the country. During a recent visit that I had to Murray Women's Aid in Elgin, it just showed me the fantastic work that they do locally, the length and breadth of Scotland. I will give way. Kezia Dugdale. The member will be aware that I am from Elgin, therefore I would be interested to hear Douglas Ross justify why when he was on the council he cut the money for women's aid in Murray and also why his council administration is currently tendering out all of Murray Women's Aid services. I don't think that's particularly helpful in the context of today's debate. Douglas Ross. I hope that it's helpful if I tell Kezia Dugdale that during my visit with Murray Women's Aid I sat down with them, went through all these issues, and what they were looking for was a champion to take these cases on their behalf back to the council. I've committed to doing that. If Ms Dugdale doesn't think that's appropriate, then I'm sorry. But if politicians are elected to this chamber to represent their constituents and local groups within it, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I have to say that the response that I got from Murray Women's Aid was far more welcoming than that response from Kezia Dugdale. I hope that she will consider her remarks when politicians are trying to do their best for their local communities. As I have previously said, we must do what we can to make sure invaluable support for women's aid groups across the length and breadth of Scotland continues. The latest figures show that 58,104 incidents of domestic abuse were recorded by the police over the last year. We know from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey that over a quarter of those who experienced partner abuse in the previous 12 months to that publication appeared to tell no one of their experiences. Those people should not and must not suffer in silence, and we must continue to increase awareness of organisations such as the SWA and the help that they can offer. I therefore welcome the comments that Annabelle Ewing gave earlier this year that the Scottish Government intends to introduce three-year rolling funding when that is possible and the Scottish Government announcement in September this year for an extra £1.85 million for rake prices Scotland, which will be used to develop new local services in Orkney and Shetland. Providing organisations with greater budgetary certainty in the medium term can only help them further in providing vital assistance to victims. It is fitting that the final piece of legislation to be passed by this chamber in session 4 was the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm Bill. The Cabinet Secretary and others will no doubt be aware that my party did not support every aspect of the bill, and the Scottish Conservatives were pleased to see the inclusion of a statutory domestic abuse aggravator and the creation of an offence of sharing private images without consent. As technology and social media evolve at a rapid pace, it is right that we ensure in law that the law is properly equipped to handle these developments, which, with one touch of a screen, can have devastating emotional repercussions. In this parliamentary session, the Scottish Government is adding to the tools in the box for police and prosecutors with the creation of a new offence of domestic abuse, and we echo the Labour amendment support for the forthcoming domestic abuse bill. That is the legislation that we will need to get absolutely right so that it does adequately capture the violent, emotional and mental abuse that can occur in relationships and the experiences of victims. A statutory response cannot be effective if those on the front line and at the sharp end of the criminal justice system do not have the appropriate level of resources to implement it in practice. Members will be aware that the Justice Committee is currently undertaking an inquiry into the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and we already know from organisations such as the Procurator Fiscal Society section of the SDFDA that the increasing complexity of domestic abuse cases means that it will take a legal member of staff more than three days to carry out checks to serve an indictment on a domestic abuse task force case compared to just over one day in most other circumstances. Meanwhile, the Scottish Women Aids Board has observed that what seems to be lacking in the Crown Office is adequate infrastructure both to support change and implementation of new policies and to sustain that improvement once achieved. I hope that the committee's inquiry will suggest a constructive way forward for the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service as more legislation is brought forward to tackle violence against women. The Scottish Government's motion refers to the Istanbul Convention, and I understand, as the Cabinet Secretary has said, that she has written to the new Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, to seek a clear timetable for the ratification. As Angela Constance will be aware, the UK Government is very much committed to the ratification of the convention, which has three aims of preventing violence against women, protecting women from violence and prostituting offenders. In most respects... I've got time. Christina McKelvie. Douglas Ross has mentioned the Istanbul Convention and the Cabinet Secretary. Please, not just to Amber Rudd, the previous Home Secretary as well, would the Scottish Tories in this place join with the Cabinet Secretary and everyone else in this place to push Amber Rudd to ratify the Istanbul Convention? It's been a long time in coming and it should happen now. Douglas Ross. Could I address that last point by Christina McKelvie? I will come on to it and I will explain why, in my belief that we have not ratified it yet, but there is UK Government support for this. There has been consistent support for this. Well, maybe if she can just give me a moment to come on to that point and we will do that. As I was saying, in most respects, measures are already in place to protect women and girls from violence which comply with or go further than the requirements of the convention and this is very much welcomed. The UK Government has confirmed and it has said this repeatedly that ratification will take place once the approach to implementing the extra-territorial jurisdiction is agreed. Given that article 44 of the convention requires states to exert legal authority beyond the territory of the United Kingdom for forced marriages and other offences, that will require primary legislation. In this vein, the SNP MP Dr Ailey Whiteford has secured parliamentary time for the second reading of the Parliament's bill calling for the ratification of the Istanbul convention later this month, which will offer the opportunity to address those issues directly in the UK Parliament. Deputy Presiding Officer, I hope that much of this debate will be consensus in nature. Scotland and the United Kingdom have done a great deal to protect women and girls from violence, whether it is domestic or sexual abuse, forced marriage or female genital mutilation, but all that hard work must not stop here. I focus my remarks on the criminal justice landscape in Scotland in this context, but I know my colleagues Margaret Mitchell, Annie Wells and Oliver Mundell will bring in the international dimension as well. Human Rights Watch has said, from historical convictions to impunity for gang rapes, 2016 has been a year of highs and lows when it comes to efforts to stem violence against women. Let us hope that in this, the next year, we will be able to make far greater progress, both at home and abroad. I move the amendment in my name. I now call on Kezia Dugdale to speak to and move amendment 2820.2. Around seven minutes, please, Ms Dugdale. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I can start by moving the amendment in my name. It's a great pleasure to open this debate for Labour. Like the Cabinet Secretary, can I commend all the activists and people across the country for taking part in events, organising events and being involved with everything to do with the 16 days of action? It's probably worth recognising the diversity of different events that have taken place over the 16 days, starting at the weekend with Reclaim the Night marches here in Scotland, where women took to the streets to talk about how unsafe they felt in their communities, compared to events that happened in the Parliament tonight, hosted by organisations like Action Aid, which are fundamentally about the basic rights of women in the developing world that still need to be recognised. We support on these benches the equally safe strategy and pay tribute in particular to Lillie Greening for all her work in pushing the boundaries of that work on encouraging a speedy implementation of that strategy, which we would very much like to see. Likewise, we fully support the principles of the Istanbul Convention on Violence Against Women and the calls on the UK Government to set out a clear timetable for ratification, so we'll be supporting the Scottish Government's motion tonight as they would expect us to do on this particular issue. There's a focus in that motion on raising awareness of the problem and changing the outdated attitudes that still persist in society. The attitudes that we all know and understand perpetuate violence against women and girls. In the time that I have, Presiding Officer, I wanted to make three distinct points, one about inequality, one about the impact of austerity, and then a final point about what we can do within the context of austerity. I think that it's worth just starting and recognising that for as long as there is inequality in society, for as long as women are unequal, we will have domestic abuse, we will have violence against women because it's ultimately about power and control and the imbalance of that power and control. Everything that we do today, everything that we talk about in terms of providing services for women who've been affected by abuse, we have to recognise that we're talking about addressing a symptom rather than a root cause of the problem. The way to address that inequality is to fight for women's rights, whether they be political, social, cultural, whether that be about the inequality in politics, whether that be equality in the most deprived of our communities. It's why every time we make the case for quotas in this chamber, it's why every time we stand up and speak for the case for women in science, technology and engineering subjects, for women in business, we are actually fighting for women's rights and violence against women, and it's worth recognising that overarching point. That is all the harder faced with the austerity that we are experiencing in so many communities across Scotland—a austerity that's perpetuated by decisions of the right-wing Tory Government. I'm afraid there's no escaping that. We know that the cuts that the Tory Government is pursuing are disproportionately impacting on women. We know that that is keeping poor women poor. It's making their jobs even harder in trying to escape abusive relationships, whether that be cuts to tax credits and benefits that are perpetuated by the UK Government, or indeed cuts that are made in this place by the Scottish Government when it comes to student grants or access to part-time college places, which are about helping women to access routes out of the poverty and disadvantage that they face. However, there's another issue, too, in that and that's about general investment in housing. If we're going to be serious about helping women escape violent relationships, we have to talk about housing. Very recently, I visited Edinburgh Women's Aid. Actually, in the last time I spoke on this chamber in a debate about violence against women, I talked about the terrible state of temporary accommodation in Edinburgh and everything we needed to do to address that. But when I was at Edinburgh Women's Aid, I looked at one of the best facilities in the country, a refuge for women, and I met one woman in particular who'd been in that refuge with her children for 18 months now, and I thought, wow, what a fantastic thing that is that she's had it at her own place in her own home for 18 months. I asked her how she felt about that, and she was really very sad because for about six or seven of those months, that was absolutely what she needed, she needed that refuge. But in the years since she's been able to piece her life back together, she's wanted to move on from that period in her life and to start rebuilding, but she can't get out the refuge because she can't get a house. And she's now stuck in that refuge, being held back by her own horrors of her history, and she just wants to move on. And that's about an absence of affordable social housing. We can't ignore how important that is in the wider picture. So that brings us, Presiding Officer, to the issue of what we can do within the austerity that we're currently faced with. And that's why Labour's put forward the amendment that we have done this afternoon, which really introduces two new points. One, it references the Scottish Government's forthcoming domestic abuse bill, and we support the ambitions of that. We'll look forward to working with the Scottish Government on developing that. I want to say something about a particular constituent in the second about that. But the other aspect of our amendment is about the consistency of decent long-term funding for women's age groups and for rape crisis centres. So, you know, I can pull up Douglas Ross's record locally on what he's done in Murray, but I think it's also important to recognise that there are threats to women's services across the whole of the country because they're not a statutory requirement. When councils are having to make cuts, I'm happy to give way. Douglas Ross. I'm grateful to the member for giving way, and I've just read her rather pathetic political attempt to criticise me on Twitter. I wonder if she could tell me what Labour councillors in Murray are doing to address the cut. What have they done since that decision was taken by Murray council a number of years ago, and what are they doing currently to address the concerns of Murray women's aid that I'm taking on board? Well, I did actually speak to the Labour councillor in the word that you represent earlier today, Mr Ross, and he told me that he fought vociferously against that cut that you voted for in Murray council chambers. So, if I can just make the wider point that I'm trying to make, Mr Ross, about the funding for services across Scotland, we have to recognise that councils have to double down on cuts to services that aren't statutory requirements. That's why women's aid services are facing the cuts that they are just now, cuts that I find absolutely unacceptable. And I would strongly urge the Scottish Government at the earliest opportunity to put these services on a three-year funding cycle, because I've seen firsthand what's happening in Edinburgh if you fail to do that. So when the Edinburgh rape crisis centre only gets a one-year funding cycle, actually all they provide is a nine-month service for that year because they provide 12-week counselling courses for women affected by violence and abuse, and they stop giving those services out to individual women for fear of not having enough money to help them to complete that 12-week process. If they had a three-year funding cycle, they would be able to increase the amount of support that they provide individual women on a year-by-year basis, and that's just a very practical example of why that is so important. And I think it's really important for us to recognise, whilst we applaud women's aid groups in this chamber this afternoon, many of the women working in these organisations are currently threatened with redundancy notices, because they don't know how much money they're going to have next year, and we should be honest about that. Just finally, Presiding Officer, I said I'd mentioned one particular constituent who came to see me. She is a victim of a violent partner. The perpetrator of that violence faced 30 charges in court. He was convicted on 10 counts with three not proven verdicts. He was bailed before sentencing, which put the fear of death into her. Whilst he was bailed, he absconded. He was found once later in Newcastle. He was arrested and once again bailed when he was back in court. He is still out there somewhere, either in the Lothians or beyond. As much as we've come a long way in improving the justice system, it is not perfect. I know it's hard to seek perfection when it comes to the justice system, but we have to recognise and give voice to those very particular experiences of the women who walk into my surgery and, no doubt, the cabinet secretary's surgery as well. This is a constructive debate. It's great to celebrate the 16 days of action, but let's get real about the challenges that are facing so many women's aid groups and domestic violence groups and to break crisis centres across the country and do everything that we can to support their on-going vital work. Thank you. Now move to the open debate. We do have a bit of time in hand, so I'm quite relaxed about interventions and being able to give time back. That may change later on when my co-deputy Presiding Officer gets in the chair, of course. I call Christina McKelvie, followed by Margaret Mitchell. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Scottish Government, as we've heard today, has responded commendably to the need for far greater awareness of violence against women and girls. Already, we have outlawed, we're on my way outlawing, revenge porn. We've introduced Clairslaw across the country. We have the Abuse of Behavior and Sexual Harm Act and looking forward to working with the Government on a domestic violence bill. We are constantly fighting human trafficking and exploitation, and there are all forms of exploitation on women and girls. But now we are striving to develop a social security system that respects human rights and treats people, especially women. But everyone with dignity and respect, one, I would hope without a rape clause. While we can congratulate ourselves on one hand, we must always be vigilant and thoughtful about how we tackle some of the most heinous crimes, which roughly at one in three of every women are affected or become a victim. None of us, Presiding Officer, is born with a desire to do violence to anyone, nor are we born with an innate prejudice. I was visiting a primary school and wish all the other days part of my committee duties, talking to children between primary four to seven. They were undertaking a project on human rights, and they were giving red, amber and green cars to tell us in the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament what we were doing well, what we could do better in and what we weren't doing well and were they absolutely fantastic. The tax was to rate how the Scottish Government had performed in certain issues, and they included ideas of fairness. There was one little boy who had a very clear idea and he was asked what he thought was unfair, and he said it's not fair the way people treat immigrants and refugees, and he was very confident in that assertion. These children, Presiding Officer, did not like inequality. So when it comes to sexual violence, physical or mental, it is an equality issue, and we need to do everything we can to embed that idea in the classroom where the receptive children will readily absorb that concept. That's where a cultural belief in a value of fairness begins. In the summer, the EIS produced new guidance on challenging misogynistic attitudes among children and young people. It's called getting it right for girls. This will help teachers' challenge at the early stage of a child's development, good, positive attitudes. At the launch of the resource with the EIS, one speaker said at the launch that inequality starts when the midwife says it's a girl, and that really struck home with me being a mother of two sons. Hopefully my sons have got some clear feminist values. Further along in life, the stand-and-safe campaign mounted in universities, which I and Margaret Mitchell supported at the University of West of Scotland, shows that young people themselves are determined to bring an end to any kind of violence visited upon women and girls. The UN Unite campaign is, in one sense, knocking at an open door, especially in Scotland. No normal person would support the promulgation of violence, yet there remains a major job to do. According to zero tolerance, violence against women and girls is a significant social problem in Scotland, which prevents the country from being as safe, healthy and productive as it could be. That's what we all want for our women and our girls. It remains very prevalent both in Scottish society and globally and is still wildly tolerated. The fact that it's tolerated is mind-blowing. When the leader of the new leader of the free world suggests that it's okay to sexually assault women, we all know that we have work to do. However, it is rooted in women's inequality. As I have said, unequal pay and economic, social and political power, sexual harassment and objectification, we all need to step up. The unequal distribution of women with caring responsibilities too all leads to that clear indication of inequality. All of that is preventable, but it takes real commitment and resource. That aspect might not be the easiest one to sell, and I respect this year's campaign theme of acquiring increased sustained funding for organisations working to end violence against women and girls. Governments globally need to step up their support if we are to succeed in outlawing this aggressive and damaging behaviour. At the UN's official launch of the annual campaign where attendees drape themselves in scarves of orange, the colour of the UN has been chosen to mark action against violence today. My colleague Claire Baker has resplendent in her orange today, putting the rest of us to shame. However, that colour marks that clear indication from the UN. It's the chosen colour, it stands out. The UN Secretary General, Bankie Moon, said that Governments need to step up their support, as I have said, of women's movements, and society groups to address what is a human rights violation. Women's rights are human rights. Human rights are women's rights. A health concern and a major obstacle to development, a major obstacle to women's development, not just here but around the world. It's time to see the whole issue in that wider context, of the damage of violent behaviour caused. It's isn't confined to the bedroom or closed doors. It isn't confined to some far-off land. It's here, it's now. If we can ensure equality for girls and women nationally and globally, then I'm sure we can ensure a safer, more equal world for our boys and men. Presiding Officer, 16 days of action against domestic violence is aimed at businesses to support them to tackle action against domestic abuse. The violence that takes place, we have a duty. Businesses have a duty. As parliamentarians, we have a duty. As a Government, we have a duty. As parties, we have a duty. That's gender-based violence now and for all. Today, we could be fearless and end that. Margaret Mitchell, followed by Gil Paterson. Presiding Officer, I welcome today's debate highlighting the United Nations global campaign for 16 days of activism to prevent violence against women and girls. Ending violence against women has been an issue debated in the Parliament since its inception. There has been significant progress since then. That includes the local initiatives such as the University of West of Scotland's Standing Safe campaign, referred to by Christina McKelvie, which is a student-led initiative facilitated by staff in consultation with key stakeholders. The aim is to encourage students in an attempt to reflect on and change harmful attitudes that underlie gender violence. In addition to that, there are practical measures suggested such as training in safe by standard intervention and the provision of a toolkit to ensure that students know how to access support. However, as the Secretary of General Ban Ki-moon stated at the launch of the UN campaign, globally, one woman in every three will be sexually or physically abused in her lifetime. It is indeed a sobering fact that it is estimated according to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime that all women who were the victims of homicide globally in 2012, homeless half were killed by intimate partners or family members compared to less than 6 per cent of men killed the same year. Furthermore, it is now widely acknowledged that sexual violence against women is used as a tool of war. Only today, when Rona Mackay, Joanne Lamont and myself met with a Iraqi delegation, they organised rape, sexual assault, sexual slavery and forced marriage, perpetrated on Yazidi, Christian and other women by Islamic State forces, was highlighted as a very potent immediate example and stark reminder of the on-going atrocities committed against women in conflict zones. Here, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, CPA, and the Commonwealth Women's Parliamentarian CWP have in recent years focused on parliamentarians sharing information and expertise about how parliaments contribute to the eradication of this pervasive global issue. Last year, the CPA Scotland branch executive committee to mark Commonwealth Day decided to hold a round table discussion with students from Commonwealth countries who were studying here in Scotland. The topic under discussion was violence against women and girls, Scotland's response, and the dialogue with these students proved to be revealing. It included a focus on female genital mutilation with a young girl from the Middle East sharing her knowledge of the custom. In particular, however, these students emphasised that violence against women includes stalking, commercial sexual exploitation, forced marriage, coercion, so-called honour-based violence, and revenge attacks such as assaults with acid. Certainly, in response to the statistics revealing a continuous upward increase in incidents of sexual violence in Scotland, in the last 12 months of session 4, the Scottish Government introduced through the Justice Committee the following legislation on domestic abuse, female mutilation, forced marriage rather, human trafficking, the non-consensual sharing of indecent images, and in addition to that, there is the bill on domestic abuse expected next year. However, bearing in mind the comments from the students at the CPA round table discussion and in the light of the police operation in Glasgow two years ago which found 97 children were the victim or at risk of being sexually exploited and more recently the online child abuse investigation by Police Scotland which identified 523 children as potential victims of online sexual abuse. It is absolutely crystal clear that while addressing domestic abuse and other forementioned issues, much more needs to be done to proactively combat online abuse and sexual exploitation which is happening here on our own doorsteps. I want to end with this thought. The abuse which happened in Rotherham over a period of 16 years involved young people reporting incidents and not being believed and revealed various occasions when the perpetrators could have been pursued but weren't. Basically, it's a devastating heart-wrenching example about how all the checks and balances allegedly in place to protect children and young people proved to be worthless in tackling this insidious, highly organised, systematic sexual abuse of hundreds of vulnerable young girls. Here's the crunch. Are any of us 100 per cent confident that this couldn't happen right under our noses here in Scotland today, given that perpetrators of sexual violence include the most devious cunning and manipulative individuals who are at depth at using modern technology in an effort to remain one step ahead of the forces of justice? In conclusion, self-evidently, there is an immediate and constant challenge in order to combat the various forms of violence against women both globally and here today in Scotland. Gil Paterson, followed by Rhoda Grant, please. Many thanks, Presiding Officer. Presiding Officer, 25 November marked the international day for the elimination of violence against women, but also the beginning of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. The campaign ending on 10 December is very appropriate, because that's human rights day. Presiding Officer, domestic abuse is unacceptable. Rape and other sexual offences are among the most important crimes in our society. I'm pleased that we have a Government and indeed a Parliament and that's across the parties in this Parliament. That is committed to taking a zero tolerance approach and a commitment to ending violence against women and children. Previously I sat as a board member of Rape Crisis Central Scotland, therefore I'm pleased that the Scottish Government is working closely with Rape Crisis Scotland to strengthen Scotland's overall approach to tackling rape and sexual assault, providing funding for 14 local rape crisis centres across the country and a rape crisis helpline. Working with partners with local connections highlights the importance of bringing on board all levels of government for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls. The equality safe strategy, that's the Scottish Government useless joint strategy, sets out a shared understanding of the causes, risk factors and scale of the problem. It highlights the need to prioritise prevention and sets out how we will develop a performance framework which allows us to know whether we are realising our ambitions. This co-ordinated approach and working with partners and the 2.4 million investment to our courts and prosecutors service to ensure domestic abuse, criminal cases are heard without undue delay, will ensure the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice and to ensure the victims receive the help and support that they need. It's worth noting that since 2010-11 the number of individuals with domestic abuse aggravated given a consolcial sentence has increased by 53% from 2017 to 1,560 in 2014-15. Over the same period the average sentence length in such cases has increased from 184 days to 257 days. Those are statistics that we can all welcome. Presiding Officer in this period of recognising action to end violence against women and girls it is worth highlighting the on-going legislation. I have previously spoke in many debates related to this including on legislation to create specific offence of domestic abuse and will cover not just physical abuse but also other forms of psychological abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour that cannot easily be prosecuted using existing criminal law. The creation of this new offence will bring clarity for victims so that they can see clearly that what their partner or ex-partner has done to them is wrong and can be dealt with under this law. I said previously that domestic abuse is unacceptable and sexual offences are important to crimes. Presiding Officer violence against women and girls are and indeed any individual is a fundamental violation of human rights a recognition both nationally and internationally. The In Stambull Convention commits nations and states to addressing violence against women and its aspirations are in full accordance with the Scottish Government's own approach and our definition of gender-based violence which is based on the UN's definition. As of the first of November 2016, 42 countries including the UK who signed on the 8th of June 2012 have signed the convention and 22 of that 42 have ratified the convention the UK Government unfortunately has yet to ratify. We should send a message from this place to encourage them to do so. Particularly since we've heard and considered the statement from Women's Aid already quoted by the Cabinet Secretary which has such a potent message for us all to act on. I have talked about the national and local approach and here is a commitment to an international approach and I, like the Scottish Government urged the UK Government to lay out a clear timetable of ratification including full engagement with other devolved administrations. Let's make these 16 days by passing this motion today. I commend the Cabinet Secretary's motion to the Parliament. I have Rhoda Grant and then John Finnie, please. We do still have a little time in hand. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The 16 days of activism against gender-based violence always provides us with an opportunity to debate violence against women and while we have debates over the year on different aspects of violence against women we have the opportunity to use this debate today to highlight gaps in services or indeed ideas for improved support and service provision. One of the issues I have been campaigning on for some time now is access to domestic abuse courts in the highlands and islands. We have seen how these have worked well in other places allowing practitioners to build up knowledge and understanding to allow services to be put in place to support victims on the day. Court can be daunting enough for anybody, far less if you are to come face to face with someone who has been abused and diminished. We need that level of support available to every victim. Obviously, in our more remote and rural areas, we cannot look at separate buildings and indeed a separate court but we can have set days set aside to deal with domestic abuse cases. Our amendment calls for three-year funding and this is really important for women's aid groups. Their national and local funding is being cut at a time when we are asking them to do more. If they knew when cases would be in court and they could use their resources better by supporting their own clients while also reaching out to others who had not yet accessed their services that would save them money. It would mean that one support worker would be able to spend a day in court and cover all the cases. Currently different support workers can be at court on every sitting day and it is impossible to do with decreasing resources. It must be also incredibly disheartening for support workers to be carrying out this very often harrowing work while also carrying around the redundancy notice and that is something that happens all too often. While most workers are used to the annual occurrence others are not often moved to jobs which are more secure. When they have experienced this redundancy situation before they may be used to it but as funds get tighter they begin to wonder if this is the day when it will really happen for them. The last two years we have had people within days of losing their jobs before the Government has announced the budgets and that needs to stop. Add to this a lack of pay rise for many of those as budgets are being cut. We are asking people to do the most difficult jobs and they are the ones that we are mostly taking for granted when it comes to rewards, security and pay rises. We are all signed up to equally safe and tackling every aspect of violence against women is equally important. We recognise that commercial sexual exploitation is violence against women is recognised and equally safe but yet we have no laws to deal with the perpetrators of gender-based violence and that is simply wrong. I recently read a book by Banyard where she says the resistance faced by those working to abolish the sex trade can sometimes simply be the quiet brute force of mass indifference. Frankly that is often what this Parliament feels like. We know it is wrong we know it is violence but the brute force of mass indifference means we don't act now. There was supposed to be a work stream on this and equally safe but there is no strategy. I spoke some time ago to an organisation that services to help adult supporters of child sex abuse, something we all take really seriously. When they set up the service they quickly became struck by the number of their client group who had been involved in prostitution. Their abuse as children carried on into adulthood leaving them with complex problems. We rightly condemn the abuse of a child but are seemingly indifferent to the abuse of an adult even when they are the same person. This is not a unique pattern it is commonly known and recognised and I really hope that the Scottish Government will now act they have to protect the exploited whether or not they are being trafficked because they are all abused. In closing I make a final plea and that is with regard to parental access where there has been a history of domestic abuse. Far too often the courts allow children to be used as weapons by an abusive partner. Surely an abuser should automatically lose all their parental rights because of their abuse. They have damaged the children already. That damage will be with the children for the rest of their days and parental rights should only be returned when they can prove that they are a fit and proper parent and nothing else will do. We have come a long way in this Parliament with dealing with violence against women but sadly we still have a distance to travel before we eliminate it altogether. I hope together that we are ready to finish this journey. Let's see mass action against violence against women rather than mass indifference. I have John Finnie to be followed by James Dornan, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The Scottish Green Party will be supporting this motion tonight and indeed the Labour Party amendment. Having said that, it should be every day that it's a day of action, not simply 16 days. It's important to have these particular times of focus but this is a daily problem and a daily nightmare for many women and girls who are against violence. The cabinet secretary and others are quite right to describe this as a human rights issue and an issue of abuse. We have spoken many times in this chamber about this matter and I suspect we will be speaking about it many times again. It is gender-based violence and it is, as the colleague Kizia Dugdale said about inequality and imbalance that's only going to be addressed if we enhance women's rights. The committee has provided for the individuals and organisations for the commitment that they give to a very demanding task and the challenges that they face. There's a number of areas that we keep returning to and there's clearly been progress made but we haven't got resolution yet. I commend the fact that an increasing number of front-line staff in various walks of life are receiving training about domestic violence, the BMA. Briefing, for instance, talked about the administrative staff there and the signs that they might look for but I found it very telling that they said that the placing of leaflets was significant because of the nature of surveillance, the coercive behaviour that exercised on victims, it had to be very discreetly available and that's the level of pernicious behaviour that we're having to deal with. In recent weeks there's been quite a bit of discussion about the police response to domestic violence and it's certainly true to say that it's very robust I would say that it's clearly merited for one, commend the approach that's been taken. It's not without its challenges that someone who wants a rights-based approach taken everything, I certainly think that the work that Police Scotland have done on domestic violence is highly commendable. A number of colleagues have said that the Justice Committee, which my member is looking into the role of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and as part of that we took evidence from Police Scotland and I asked Assistant Chief Constable Higgins about the work that Police Scotland is identifying repeat offenders and the protocol that's gone through when a victim comes to light and again that's some significantly good work that's been done. A bully doesn't stop being a bully because they move to a new partner rather they find a new victim and it's deeply distressing how some men's criminal behaviour has continued over a considerable period of time. There's been some very high profile prosecutions, I can think of one in the Highlands, which has sent a very, very clear message and we know that that's come about because of collaborative behaviour, collaborative working, I should say, with women's aid victims groups and the diligent inquiries of Police Scotland. Supported by and I think it's important are dedicated specialist prosecutors so that issue remains but for these cowards I tell them that Police are coming to get them and I hope they do get them in numbers. There's also a challenge in our legal system that we keep talking about and that is to ensure that our legal processes don't in themselves re-victimize people. I talk about issues about the number of interviews court designs being alluded to by people and there is a role for domestic abuse courts. My colleague Rhoda Granton I've also raised the issue with the Sheriff's principle. It isn't about buildings, this is about case management and it is about making best use of resources. One of the things that has come out in recent years is the special measures where we have the technology to help people sadly it's not necessarily understood and certainly its potential use hasn't been realised and I do still hear of instances where women would benefit from that technology but that's not been applied. Recently also in relation to another debate we talked about the role of children's evidence and perhaps a different route the committee taking to secure that again ensuring that victims and witnesses aren't put through the ordeal of court that there is some pre-trial agreement in that. Again another aspect that has been talked about is education education is absolutely key to this. I think we also have to understand the concerns that have been voiced about the objectification of women and girls and the pressures that they feel under from social media. There are positive role models in this chamber and we must promote that. Men know the power they have and it's quite disgraceful that in the back of accusations about misconduct involving women that the president of elective USA on one of the rare occasions when I watched him literally prowl behind his female opponent in a television studio. Some suggested that was lack of self-awareness in his part quite the reverse I think that's far far too generous I think that was a sad contempt for his opponent because she was a woman it is gender-based violence. We've talked about legislation that's been going through in recent time to the abuse of behaviour and sexual harm that members in the previous Justice Committee put through. We've also looked at human traffic and that must be addressed. There has been positive progress. I hope that that won't be in any way affected by Brexit. Slavery, forced marriage and the role that rape crisis centres play is very important. Another term that I'm not enthusiastic about is the term honour-based violence. Thuggery's Thuggery doesn't matter how you dress it up we're affording it far too much credibility by giving it that name. Other members have talked about female men genital mutilation I have to tell you in the Equal Opportunities Committee we did an inquiry into this that term means nothing to most of the victims. There are various euphovisms for the vile treatment that they're subjected to to break down the barriers that means that that can't be confronted and empower women and girls in relation to that. Another aspect that has been talked about is gender segregation. That comes up with all sorts of walks of life. The other thing that we must ensure and will come up in our on-going inquiry into the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service is to ensure that the criminal and civil law works in tandem, the situation where an offender is convicted, bail conditions are immediately lifted and a victim is once more at the mercy of that individual is completely unacceptable. The question of access to justice that's not justice if that happens that unfortunately has become perhaps a cliched term but the equally safe approach is the one that we should be adopting. People have also mentioned the welfare system and how that disproportionately the UK welfare system not the welfare system that regards people we're going to put in place here but as that is particularly important for children. I'll conclude by saying that I would throw my weight fully behind the remarks that women's aid made in relation to this Dumbbell convention and I've enjoyed the debate today. Thank you. Thank you. My name is James Dornan and we follow about Alex Cole-Hamilton. Mr Dornan, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I don't know what it's like to live in fear of being beaten in my own home. I don't know what it's like to have to hide with small children under a bed just in case or worse the children. I don't know what it's like to have to tell my children to turn music up really loud in order for them not to hear the slaps or the screams and I don't know what it's like to have to pack up all my belongings and the belongings of my family to flee into the dark night at times not knowing where I'll go or who to turn to. I might never have faced this but far too many women in my constituency and throughout Scotland do and that's why this motion is so vitally important. My constituency, there are fantastic projects that support those affected by domestic abuse. The Waves and Daisy projects, run and cast them out by local people are changing the lives of many victims who pass through their doors and I've been fortunate enough to work closely with both these groups and get an insight into the lives of these women and at this point I'd like to mention Janice and Trisha from Waves, Bessie, Helen and Cathy, Janice and Trisha from the Daisy project Bessie, Helen and Cathy from Waves who have committed so much of their time that it's a bit better for these women and their children. Sadly the stories are all too often similar but let me take this opportunity to be the voice of these women whose stories so often go unheard. Some of the women present with holes in their shoes, there's no food, no heat and very few clothes because their partner withholds money or they've lost their earning potential due to on-going issues that have risen due to the abuse. Even after fleeing abuse many women still struggle. One woman and her children spent last Christmas in temporary accommodation and in that house there was no TV, no Christmas presents, no Christmas dinner, no hope. This is why many of the toys from my annual toy appeal go to these children that Waves and Daisy project deal with daily all through the year. Women who are looked after by these projects are often seen to be getting frailer and frailer a stress, worry and fear along with months and years of abuse to take a physical toll on their body. They become mentally unwell and self-esteem is so low that these women cannot even find love for themselves. While this is an untold effect on the woman we must never forget the many children damaged in the short and long term as a result of domestic abuse. Many leading children's charities across Scotland and the UK acknowledge that for a child witnessing domestic abuse that in itself is a form of child abuse. Children can experience domestic abuse in many different ways of course seeing the abuse, hearing the abuse from another room, seeing the parents injuries and distress after the attack, worst of all maybe being physically caught up in the attack and at times injured trying to prevent an attack when in reality there is nothing a child can or should have to do to protect his mother. Often children never tell an outside adult about this abuse in their home situation because they either believe that the experience is normal or they are far too terrified of the consequences to be able to alert an adult. If a child is forced to flee the home with an abuse parent that too can have a profound effect on their life often they will end up in a strange environment with a distressed parent and that child alone can be the parent's only source of care and comfort. They may have to live in unstable or unsuitable accommodation miles from their place of education and with no other family member for support. In a conversation just this morning with Shelter Scotland we were often at the front line when it comes to rehoming families fleeing domestic abuse. I was told that the average child an unstable accommodation or indeed homeless will miss 55 days of school as education convener clearly I find that not acceptable. On top of that the child is more likely to experience bullying and to become isolated in the learning environment. Take these factors alongside the emotional and mental turmoil this child is facing and it would seem to that child that the future would be rather bleat indeed. Police Scotland described domestic abuse in the following way any form of physical, sexual or mental and emotional abuse which might amount to criminal conduct and which takes place within the context of a relationship. The relationship will be between partners married, cohabiting, civic partnership or otherwise or ex-partners. The abuse can be committed in the home or elsewhere. There is a common misconception that domestic abuse is just physical abuse. This is clearly not the case. Domestic abuse can be physical, sexual and emotional or mental abuse and sometimes may be the longer term impact is when it is emotional and mental abuse. I recognise that in Scotland there are many forms but none of them are acceptable and we must do everything that we can to combat it. The Equally Safe Scotland report states that on a practical level the cost implications are failing to address the prevalence and implications of violence against women and girls are significant amounting to an estimated £1.6 billion for domestic abuse and £4 billion for violence against women in all its forms. For me my hope would be that we could end all forms of gender-based violence towards change. The projects that I mentioned earlier are doing huge amounts of work and I just noted one or two of the things that the DAISY project does for example. It helps them with food banks, it gives them emergency support when it is needed including supermarket gift cards that refers them to money and debt advice that passes on clothes and toys etc that are donated, attend lawyers and courts and this is horrible that this has to be done arranges safe entry and exits to these courts very often for these women We have started a small civil court support group to get where main issues lie for women and they have unlimited support especially for civil court cases which can go on for many years They have drop in centres outreach support group sessions one to one care and they educate women in their rights Sadly like many of the children women don't even realise that they are a victim of a crime because the preparator is someone who they very often love and trust Victim support Scotland do great work in helping women who have reported the crimes on the ground like Daisy in Waves who are helping women to find the courage to report it in the first place These projects are my deepest admiration they aren't just a lifeline for women they are quite often a salvation for whole families Presiding Officer it stresses me deeply that in 2016 we are still having to debate the horrors of violence against women of any kind till this is eradicated across the globe it's a job of this Parliament to stand up for and be the voice of those who cannot speak without fear for themselves Thank you Thank you Presiding Officer I'd like to start by echoing the sentiments of previous speakers across all parties in this debate and welcome that respectful tone in which we have fostered I need to declare an interest at the start and that before I came to this place I served on the ministerial expert group on violence against women and children and indeed on the ministerial task force of child sexual exploitation My work on both of these committees has fostered within me a deep understanding that violent abuse be it gendered or otherwise spans an insidious spectrum in our society and with it there exists an intersectionality of issues, social problems and marginalisation These range from the dark realities we've heard about today of human trafficking in this country the horrific existence of things like female genital mutilation in a country's old destructive relationship with alcohol and the massive empirical link that exists between drink and domestic abuse So complex is this particular agenda that the Scottish Government has rightly embarked on a range of programmes and strategies to address the stains on the fabric of our society be that through Equally Safe the FGM action plan the forthcoming domestic abuse bill all of these shape our response to the challenge of the Istanbul Convention and they have our full support I have referred to two such approaches of which I've already been personally evolved All of these have rightly received full-throated cross-party support from across these benches but the complexity I have described has made it manifestly difficult for us to collectively answer the challenge of violence in our society Indeed the first iteration of Equally Safe the violence against women and girls strategy was actually drafted without the contribution of the children's sector this oversight led to a delay but then a welcome redraft speaking again to the internet sectionality I described before because we have to be vigilant that when we are drafting strategies in different approaches that victims will not slip through the cracks whilst violence is often gendered in nature that original strategy neglected the very real concerns of many organisations who pointed to the symmetry and relevance of those efforts in the needs and interests of little boys put simply we just can't allow this to become too siloed but regardless of the strategies we employ we must ensure that they are always always implemented from a rights-based perspective with the child rights and wellbeing impact assessment conducted at every stage of our journey in this regard and our approach must absolutely be preventative from the outset teaching children from an early age what is safe, respectful appropriate adult relationship should look like whilst building their self-esteem and the tools and understanding and management of their own anger that is why it's vital that our efforts in this agenda must also pin commensurate agendas like the nascent RSHPE guidance as well as prevention we must look to address the acute end of this problem and the symptoms of it too the availability of trauma recovery services is still entirely dependent on geography and similarly teacher training around the very specific behavioural needs of children affected by attachment disorder trauma and loss is currently inadequate and risks further hampering life chances Presiding Officer the state of children's rights report which was published last month by Together the Scottish Alliance for Children's Rights of which I am a past convener further delineates the task before us it clearly lays out the fact that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is concerned by the high prevalence of domestic violence and gender-based violence in our country and the very particular impact this has on children both as victims and as witnesses but it is on the issue of equal protection for children themselves that this Parliament and this country have the greatest distance still to travel now this government today has righted in the age of criminal responsibility that has stood as a demerit among the UNCRC rapporteurs for many many years and we are welcome to that and this benches in particular it is a lasting testament to the work of my good friend Alison McInnes but we shall forever fail in our efforts to eradicate any form of violence in our homes while we continue to sanction the use of violence as a corrective sanction against our children at the heart of Scottish Women's Aid the antiquated legal defence of justifiable assault used to apply to the physical punishment of servants and of women, these have rightly long since been repealed but the defence for children still endures put simply we shall never achieve our cross-party ambition to make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up while we remain one of only four countries in the Council of Europe to permit the physical punishment of our children and the UN committee and rightly admonishes us for this and in one country where equal protection has been afforded to children have we seen the mass criminalisation of parents, something that this Government cites for their reluctance to move on it as we work collectively across these benches to deliver the laudable steps that this Government has taken on violence equal protection for our children is the last frontier in this agenda and we will support John Finnie and his Parliament to change the law in this regard former heads of the Strathclyde violence reduction unit John Carnican was asked at a conference in 2007 how we begin to reduce domestic and gendered violence in our society to which he said well for a start I don't think we should be assaulting our children as with so many things I will Ms Lamont I can just say a respect to what you are making about violence against children but would you not acknowledge that violence against women knows no borders no boundaries, no classes and whether children are permitted to be smacked in these communities or not the level of violence against women is across is a global issue and although that campaign is important it is not the last frontier of protecting women against violence Mr Cole-Hamilton I thank John Lamont for her intervention and I absolutely agree with her in her remarks about the global fight against violence against women and when I say it's the last frontier I mean it's the last frontier that we are to make any meaningful policy progress on in this place and I think and I'll finish with this that if you get the early years right so much of the rest will follow and we need to start by setting an example for our children and theirs to come thank you Colin Beattie fall by Oliver Mundell Mr Beattie please Presiding Officer I'm very pleased to support and speak in this year's 16 days of action campaign this international campaign calls for the total elimination of violence against women and girls the campaign was born in 1991 at the first women's global leadership institute and co-ordinated by the centre for women's global leadership at Rutgers University it runs from the 25th of November which is international day against violence against women until the 10th of December international human rights day and it has its mission the aim to reframe women's rights as human rights over the last 25 years much has been achieved to stop violence against women both as a result of the 16 days campaign and by the hard work of other organisations however recent inappropriate statements from certain prominent presidential candidates have highlighted to the world the reality that we still have much work to do for all the good that's been done perhaps we aren't quite as far along with ending violence against women as we thought we were an indicative of this recent estimates by the UN suggest that one in three women will experience some form of physical or sexual violence at some point during their life with similar figures approximated specifically for domestic abuse and for the sexual abuse of girls during childhood in Scotland however reports on our progress to end violence against women do appear positive and I firmly believe that we are headed in the right direction last week Police Scotland reported that four out of every five domestic abuse charges have led to a conviction and just last month the Scottish Government released figures from 2015-16 showing that incidents of domestic abuse have decreased by 3% from the year prior with a lower total of 58,104 incidents on top of that there was an additional 3% decrease in incidents resulting in at least one crime or offence being committed and as I say these reports are positive but 58,104 incidents is still 58,104 incidents too many violence against women and girls in any form has no place in Scotland or in any nation and when I speak of violence I mean violent and abusive behaviour directed at girls precisely because they are women and girls it comes as no surprise that such acts are perpetrated predominantly by men or that this behaviour is a result of the long standing and ongoing inequality between men and women and it includes domestic abuse rape, sexual assault forced marriage, female genital mutilation and prostitution whatever form it takes it permanently impacts every individual and family involved children and close relatives are often drawn into the terrible circumstances which so often arise the knock-on effect is incalculable people's lives are affected for many years and sometimes for all of their lives people survive domestic abuse and lend to cope with the consequences but it does have to stop studies indicate that women who are experiencing violence are 15 times more likely to use alcohol and 9 times more likely to use drugs than other women they are more than twice as likely to have an abortion almost twice as likely to experience depression and in some regions one and a half times more likely to acquire HIV and maybe the starkest figure is that of all the women who were victims of homicide globally in 2012 almost half were killed by intimate partners or family members and that compares to only 6% of men killed in the same year this is an issue that by any definition has to be close to the homes and hearts of people across Scotland and across the world 25 years after the 16 days of action campaign was launched 23 years after the UN General Assembly issued its declaration on the elimination of violence against women we can and must commit to do better each year we must commit to do better each year until such violence is eradicated the 16 days campaign is a time to mobilise our communities and get them into action it's a time to band together and stop this epidemic now one of the major challenges to international efforts trying to prevent an end to violence against women and girls is the substantial lack of funding available and often if funding is awarded at all it is desperately difficult to renew in the future and that's why this year's campaign sponsored by the UN emphasises the need for sustainable financing for all organisations involved in this effort now happily the Scottish Government has been very active in its efforts to fund women's aid organisations and last year provided over 12 million pounds backing over 90 organisations dedicated to ending this violence and these groups include Scotland's regional women's aid organisations Rape Crisis Scotland Barnardo's and a host of local grassroots organisations in fact dedicated funding for violence against women and girls is at an all-time high in Scotland and has been for several years now of course Ms Lamont agreed with a point made by my colleague Keis Duttdale and has been often made not just by women's organisation but more generally by voluntary organisation that security of three year funding allows for better use of the resources ability to plan, prepare and give confidence to people who want to use those services and we support our amendment at the end of the vote today Mr Beattie I do agree that funding is always a challenge for all these organisations one of the less enjoyable parts of being a member of this Parliament is dealing directly with some of the fallout related to domestic abuse fortunately organisations such as women's aid are there to help pick up the pieces and as an MSP I've met many women over the past few years of women's aid usually based directly on their own experiences but I would like to highlight that in many cases I've encountered the abuse suffered is not physical but verbal or mental just because there's no physical scars does not mean there's no wound and personally I've found the cases of mental abuse by far the more difficult to deal with as I said a few minutes ago fortunately we do have organisations such as women's aid to provide the expertise and support needed to the women and I've been fortunate enough to work with a number of these groups in their missions to promote, protect and empower women and girls across Scotland and these have included the internationally acclaimed White Ribbon campaign the Pink Ladies First organisation Edinburgh and Lothian's regional equality council and of course local women's aid groups in Midlothian and East Lothian they all to my mind provide an absolutely essential service in the battle against domestic abuse and it's our job to strengthen them and enhance them so that they will continue their services well into the future and I hope my colleagues in Parliament will join me in getting involved with and actively supporting all such groups in their constituencies I hope we'll all redouble our efforts not just during this 16 days campaign but day in day out seeking new ways to help in violence against women and girls in our local communities and across our country thank you very much I call Oliver Mundell the penultimate speaker to be followed by Ben Macpherson Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer I'm very pleased to be able to contribute to today's important debate and very much welcome the parliamentary time this cause has secured both in this chamber and at Westminster More importantly I'm also very pleased to have the opportunity to thank the activists, organisations and individuals and volunteers from across Scotland including Maidan Freesture constituency who work day in day out not just for 16 days of the year to help women to overcome the challenges the violent behaviour from men still brings as I've said in a previous debate on domestic abuse I do not think that we can underestimate the significance of shining a light on a pouring abuse of women and victims I think that it's very important that we send that message out from this Parliament today Indeed, I believe that in our fractious and often too divided politics it's imperative that all individuals and families who've carried the burden and suffered the consequence of this scourge see politicians united both in common cause and in action There have of course been many great strides forward and the Scottish Government rightly deserve credit for the work that they've done particularly around domestic abuse However, there is much more to do and we cannot afford to pat ourselves on the back when our criminal justice system is still less than perfect and when outdated and unacceptable social attitudes still prevail I therefore very much welcome the tone of the cabinet secretary's opening remarks and if truth be told I think that the second aspect around social attitudes remains the most challenging I say that not because I discount the importance of seeing justice done but because we can only prevent offending and violent behaviour by tackling its roots in our homes our schools, our families and our communities Indeed, I very much hope before my own involvement in politics is over that we reach a point where debates such as this are no longer needed but that day seems further away than ever with the continued sexualisation of women both online and offline challenges around female genital mutilation as has already been mentioned and the much talked about but all too often dismissed discrimination of women in the workplace I look at my own family and back to my grandmothers who lived through the second world war a conflict which many acknowledge and radically realigned our society and changed through necessity the traditional view that a woman's realm was domestic and almost exclusively within the home I think of my grandmother going off in her late teens to join the war effort and how alien that must have seemed in a small rural village that might seem like a slight departure from the motion before us but the point I'm trying to make is that we have within relatively recent history lifetimes of many who are still alive today made significant advances in challenging stereotypes and misplaced conceptions about the role of women indeed we've seen and see again now in our own field of politics that women can aspire to and hold the highest office whether that be as First Minister or Prime Minister but unfortunately the same challenges are now back full and equal representation I may be badly placed to make this point having through no fault of my own removed an exceptionally capable dedicated and experienced women from this Parliament however alongside achieving greater economic freedom I still believe that ensuring that more women help shape our public discourse is key to tackling more extreme discrimination and ultimately truly unacceptable levels of physical and psychological abuse that women are all too often the victims of and to changing attitudes more generally yes It's great to hear the member's support for having more women actively involved in politics we do therefore back the women 50 50 campaign which would require this place to have equal numbers of women and men within it Mr Mundell I thank Kezia Dugdale for that intervention I'd like to see a Scottish Parliament we saw 50 50 representation but I think that that's better achieved by ensuring that young women are given the encouragement to get involved in politics and that's a difference of opinion but I don't think that this debate is the best place to go into that in detail and I think it's not just a task for women it's incumbent on each and every one of us to be our full part and the problem I think for many of us particularly those of us who are younger in years is that we've become unknowingly a little bit complacent and we're certainly not as a whole as radical as some of those generations who have come before us and instead of pushing for the systematic systematic change we've all too readily accepted that this fight is one of incremental change instead I believe we need to grasp the opportunity before us to redouble our efforts to build a fair and tolerant society because if we do not then we will all pay the price socially, economically and culturally in closing I wish to turn briefly back to justice itself and make a short and I hope unpartisan plea to the Scottish Government to keep a very close eye on the work the justice committee are doing in this session as part of its review into the Crown Office of the Procurator Fiscal Service because from the evidence we've received so far it's clear that not only are legislative changes required to ensure that all domestic abuse crimes are captured by the law but that there are often owing to a lack of resources very serious failings in the way that many victims of violent crime are served by the current system and whilst I do not deny the fact and in fact commend the work that people do going above and beyond the call of duty they need to know that the Government is on their side and we need in my view to look very carefully at what practical steps can be taken to ensure that justice is being done and that perpetrators not the victims are the ones who are punished thank you Ben Macpherson was the last speaker in the open debate when we moved to closing speeches thank you Presiding Officer it's an absolute privilege to speak in this important debate recognising the 16 days of action to end violence against women and girls and to galvanise action from all of us to reductions of these terrible crimes I'd also like to take this opportunity to recognise my predecessor Malcolm Chisholm's work in this area and I was delighted to see that he's been appointed as a patron of Edinburgh Women's Aid and will continue that great work this week I was writing an article about the organisation Circle Scotland which is a charity based in West Pilton in my constituency that supports families in a variety of ways and does fantastic work across many parts of Scotland I used to volunteer with Circle when I was a teenager mentoring children from challenging circumstances young children and one day I was in the centre and there was a disagreement amongst the six-year-olds that myself and other volunteers were looking after and getting very upset because the other children were saying that his dad wasn't hard his dad wasn't a hard man and he was upset and he was worried about this and spent the rest of the day trying to persuade me that his dad was hard and it reminded me of my early days at primary school where there were debates in P1 and P2 about who was the toughest in the year or the toughest in the school and I think about those moments often and particularly today because I think they encompass many of the problems that we have in Scotland around community cohesion and reducing instances of violence generally and how much notions of toughness are misunderstood as demonstrations of strength and how too often and for too long in our society and in other societies around the world the concept of strength has wrongly been viewed through a prism of physical prowess or an aggressive approach to assertiveness it's been 15 years since that moment and built in but even today we know in our own individual circumstances that young boys and men in our communities are still growing up with misguided and sometimes unethical societal expectations around how they should behave and what they should aspire to and that it's that this is so these societal expectations are so damaging when it comes to violence against women in all its forms of course violence against women in Scotland today and around the world stems back to the patriarchy and historical sense of entitlement and superiority amongst too many men and as individuals and as MSPs together as a society we all need to play a role in challenging and changing that and that's why today's debate has been useful and of course in challenging that outdated immoral violent behaviour there are three main ways that we can do it we can do it through legislation we can do it through financial support and we can do it through changing attitudes in terms of legislation I support the Scottish Government's aspirations to implement the equally safe strategy to tackle all forms of violence against women and girls working with COSLA I support the introduction of legislation in this Parliament on the specific offence of domestic abuse and that this will cover not only physical abuse but also other forms of psychological abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour that cannot be easily prosecuted using existing criminal law I support the Government's determination in terms of services to support those working with survivors like the remarkable Edinburgh crisis centre that Kezia Dugdale mentioned which is in my constituency which I've also visited the Scottish Government commitment to funding and I also acknowledge Kezia Dugdale's point and it's in the Labour amendment about security on three-year rolling funding that's also been raised with me and I'll be supporting the Labour amendment tonight for that reason but lastly I'd like to come back to the point that I touched on in my initial remarks which was around what we can all do to support the need at every opportunity to seek a shift in consciousness to change social attitudes and to develop a culture of gender equality and non-violence the motion states that we must tackle the underlying attitudes and inequalities that create the conditions for violence against women and girls and I couldn't agree more the cabinet secretary powerfully spoke about how this encompasses equality of opportunity and also economic aspects and that was covered in other speeches as well today but I'd like to focus on tackling gender stereotypes because for me they are a major part of that the cabinet secretary referred to research that was done about young people's attitudes to violence against women and I think it's in all our interest to read this document because it really lays down the challenge for us and one thing it focuses on is that we need to target our message to boys not just challenging misogyny in schools but really thinking about and I think this is important thinking about gender stereotypes and what it means to be a man or a boy too much and for too long we've pushed young men to be hard, dominating tough, have no emotions be in charge be like a man we say man up even in instances in Scottish politics stop using these meaningless and unhelpful phrases instead let's do all that we can to move towards a society where the common view is to encourage young men to be respectful to act with integrity and that real strength is found in equality and treating others all others with dignity, decency and respect so whether we are a parent or a teacher or a sports coach or a boss or a sibling or a friend, someone who works in the media or a politician let's challenge the gender stereotypes in our society let's create a Scotland where whether you're a 6 year old boy or a 16 year old boy or a 26 year old or 36 year old, 46 year old, 56 year old and older that we relate to women as equals and where that sense of are we whether we're tough or not is not what it means to be a boy or a man thank you very much and now move to closing speeches Claire Baker to close for Labour 6 minutes please Mr Speaker thank you Presiding Officer the debate this afternoon has been very welcome and gives us an opportunity to affirm our commitment to ending violence and abuse against women and girls we have heard accounts of the violence and abuse suffered by women and girls here in Scotland accounts which damage, which seek to destroy which demean women and girls some of it is systematic and sanctioned other actions are taking place within a culture of acceptance or we have cultures who are turning a blind eye to the activities and do not recognise the problem society is where women continue to be unequal in social, economic and political realms but we've also heard of courage of challenge of fight back from both men and women, boys and girls who want to live in a society which treats women and girls as inferior and subsumes violence and abuse into our everyday existence the 16 days of activism against gender based violence indicates the global importance of this campaign and we have had a wide ranging debate this afternoon the cabinet secretary is right to push the UK Government to confirm that they will ratify the treaty and give us a clear timetable Kezia Dugdale raised the importance of human rights to the debate because they are fundamental to changing society's attitudes towards gender based violence Margaret Mitchell was right to raise sexual assault as a tool of war and that women and children are hugely vulnerable in these situations they are often the unacknowledged victims of war and conflict and they are also often doubly assaulted as they are often excluded and stigmatised by their own communities and while this afternoon many people have talked about what goes on in their own constituencies and we do have a responsibility to recognise our global responsibilities and aspirations just travelling into work this week I heard of two serious rate cases being reported on the news that happened in Scotland one in a public park and one in a women's own home these are horrific cases but they are not isolated and when we look at Scotland's crime statistics they show a worrying trend we see rising numbers of domestic abuse cases of sexual assault of rape cases all showing that we still have a serious problem to deal with these are crimes that are associated with feelings of shame of fear over how the victim will be treated of victims being put under scrutiny we cannot be a society which fosters degradation and violence we have undoubtedly come a long way but I have concerns that for a number of complex reasons some of the advancements are going backwards that gendered attitudes are becoming more common that everyday sexism is increasing that the status and privilege still disadvantage women and girls in communities, families women and girls need to be empowered to go further and change our society in the interests of us all Rhoda Grant this afternoon talked about commercial sexual exploitation of women and I know how much work Rhoda Grant is doing on this subject and I recently went to an event organised by her in Parliament about the changes that have happened to the law in Canada and I hope the Scottish Government can respond to the points that Ms Grant made this afternoon many members have raised the importance of equally safe and it is the job of all of us to ensure that the plan is delivered. Zero tolerance in the briefing for the debate rightly highlight the need for a robust delivery plan what we currently have is welcome but we do now need to move on to developing and implementing an effective plan which is properly resourced and supported a number of members have mentioned the comments and attitudes of the president elect these are unacceptable but they are more common place than we would often like to think the response to this needs to be sustained it needs to have leaders it needs a movement to challenge these attitudes and change them and I give credit to all the grassroots movements that we have to claim the night to everyday sexism to zero tolerance who seek to do this. The example of that is the west of Scotland university students who was mentioned by Christina McKelvie and Margaret Mitchell who are challenging unacceptable behaviour on campus which put women at risk NUS have raised concerns about increases in lad culture leading to an acceptance of everyday sexism which is expected to be laughed off and accepted leaving women often young women being verbally harassed and sexually molested and internationally there have been high profile reports of sexual assault on campus particularly the case of Brock Turner in America but here at home we also have high profile cases involving celebrities and footballers which really push into the spotlight the way in which society reports those cases and the way in which they judge women's behaviour Christina McKelvie, Ben Macpherson and Alex Cole-Hamilton all spoke this afternoon about work that's been needing to be done to challenge gender attitudes among young people and if we can do that successfully it has a huge impact on people's future lives and relationships so more support does need to be given to prevention work and particularly into preventing teen abuse and exploitation as well as young people's attitudes to pornography sex and relationships my colleague Kezia Dugdale spoke about the need for a stable and predictable funding for women's aid and rape crisis centres a call that I hope we can unite around and Rhoda Grant talked about the unacceptable threat of redundancy for women who are working on the front line and sustainable funding is a theme of the campaign so I hope we get support for the amendments this afternoon I want to briefly say that I do have concerns about some of the language that's been used around the committee inquiry that other people have mentioned into the Crown Office and I would emphasise that people might have concerns about the way in which we deal with domestic abuse cases not concerns that I share but I would emphasise the importance of how the debate is conducted and the tone of the exchanges domestic abuse is still a hidden crime it's an under reported crime and some of the claims that have been made to the committee risk trivialising the importance of domestic abuse and some of the social media comments that people who really should know better have been inappropriate and unhelpful Presiding Officer this afternoon the Parliament can send a strong united message that we will all do all we can to provide the proper legal framework the right resources to empower women and girls and send a strong message that violence and abuse whether it's physical or psychological is not acceptable in our society and it will not go unchallenged Thank you very much I call Annie Wells to pose for conservator seven minutes please Ms Wells Thank you Presiding Officer I am pleased to be taking part in this debate today on gender based violence and would also like my fellow colleagues across the chamber to take the opportunity to also commend the UN 16 day of activism campaign as we all know we are not only responsible for trying to eradicate violence against women and girls in the UK it is our duty to make sure we do our bit globally the UK government has been influential on this issue this year receiving recognition from the independent commission for aid impact for its efforts to eliminate gender based violence the department for international development has rapidly expanded its violence against women and girls programming over the past five years it now has 23 programmes with a total budget of £184 million the money is dedicated to addressing a number of gender violence issues including trafficking female fantasies suicide and FGM to name a few I am also pleased to see the UK has committed £6 million to the UN trust fund to end violence against women this grant which reached over a million people in 2015 alone is specifically for small women and civil society organisations to tackle violence I do of course however acknowledge that there is much more to be done both domestically and internationally although Oliver Mundell rightly pointed out there is no room for complacency this issue is deeply rooted in cultural norms and unequal power relations between men and women one in three women in Africa South Asia and the Middle East still experience intimate partner violence globally highlighting just how ingrained this global epidemic is this is why collaborative campaigns such as that of the UN are so fundamental I welcome Margaret Mitchell's emphasis on collaborative international efforts as well as the work of the UN we see the work of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and its women parliament steering group and also Margaret Mitchell's input regarding the sexual violence against women being used as a tool of war a stark reminder indeed of a views inflicted on women and children during wars as Douglas Ross stated in his amendment the UK Government is in the process of agreeing the approach to implementing extra territorial jurisdiction and as Douglas also stated article 44 of the convention requires stakes to exert legal authority beyond the territory of the UK for this and other offences this is why we welcome the SNP MP Ellie Whiteford has secured the parliamentary time to debate this important issue this month and the UK Government has stated already its commitment to ratifying the Istanbul convention we all know the UK is not immune to gender-based violence statistics here are still surprisingly high with one in four women experienced domestic abuse and one in four in the LGBTI community of course we now see new forms of gender-based violence which carry their own unique challenges revenge porn and online abuse are on the up and we are increasingly starting to recognise that stereotyping and sexualisation of women in the media and commercial world can act as precursors to unhealthy attitudes towards women we are also starting to hear more from previously unheard voices in the LGBTI community regarding abuse in same sex and transgender relationships and marriages LGBTI Scotland carried out its own research through the voices unheard project and reported that 52% of respondents said they had experienced some form of behaviour from a partner or ex-partner young LGBTI people may find themselves the member shares my support for the fearless campaign that's been launched with SACRO with support from Shackty Women's Aid respect LBT Youth Scotland who are offering support to all victims and survivors of domestic abuse thank you Ms Adamson I absolutely do share your support for that it's fantastic that we've got organisations standing up together so that's absolutely do young LGBTI people may find themselves in unique positions being victims of homophobic, biophobic and transphobic abuse or other types of control and behaviour such as outing or the threat of outing Government and society action on domestic violence should therefore be tried to cater for these unique needs also I welcome any action that the Scottish Government takes to tackle violence against women and girls here in Scotland this includes its equalised strategy as well as its plans to legislate on the domestic abuse law that takes a kind of psychological including coercive and controlled behaviour as well as physical abuse something that was debated in the chamber back in September and I would also again like to reiterate to the Scottish Parliament to look at how we can improve the criminal justice system for the better so that all cases of domestic abuse can be captured I want to take the opportunity to thank all those on the front line who work extensively towards eradicating violence against women and girls but bring special attention to the voluntary organisations in the region I represent Glasgow say women Glasgow women's aid and Hema Gryff to name a few that we have exclusivity and a spread of services that cater for a variety of needs that reassures me to see the different needs are being identified while say women specialising supporting young women who have been the subject of sexual abuse long standing women's aid group Hema Gryff specialising helping Asian, black and ethnic minority women who may experience very different forms of abuse a subject close to my heart I would however like to raise some of the concerns again raised by LGBTI of Scotland that despite a wide range of services domestic abuse support specifically targeted to the LGBTI people in Glasgow was lacking this is no criticism of anyone at all but it is certainly something that I will seek to look further into in conclusion I would like to reiterate my thanks to the organisers of the 16 days of action for putting the issue of gender based violence all the way under the spotlight it is such an all encompassing issue with so many variants and forms that undeniably it is that education on a global scale can seem somewhat overwhelming with so many women now in high profile powerful positions however both in Scotland and the wider UK the time is now to take the decisive action on this issue thank you very much I now call Angela Constance to close to the Government Cabinet Secretary till 5 o'clock please thank you very much today's debate demonstrates a strong degree of consensus and collaboration across the chamber but also symbolic in today's debate is the sense of challenge and indeed challenges needed along with consensus because it's both consensus and challenge that actually spurs us forward to making the changes that we need to make and I also echo the comments that we spoke of the courage of women who have had to endure unnecessary violence and oppression in all its form and how we have to commend and support the survivors who have had to endure things that we can only imagine it is I suppose heartening that there is a consensus of approach violence against women and girls is a symptom and a cause of wider gender inequality violence against women and girls is underpinned by gender inequality and in order to prevent and eradicate it we need to focus on delivering greater gender equality as well as tackling perpetrators and intervening early and effectively both to prevent offending behaviour but both to change those underlying attitudes and behaviour and our strategy in the form of Equally Safe provides that shared understanding of the causes the risk factors and indeed the scale of the problem and we've had nearly 60,000 recorded incidents of domestic abuse in 2014 and 15 and that is testimony to the scale of the challenge that we have still to overcome Equally Safe also highlights prevention and sets out how we will develop the performance framework which will allow us to know how well we're doing or how well we're not doing and I want to echo the words of John Finnie because our work to eradicate and prevent violence against women and girls has to be all year round and it is all year round but the purpose of those 16 days of activism is to reflect on more what more we need to do to make the changes that are required and if I can also say that in recognising our collective progress and our collective achievements I do so only to increase our collective resolve to continue on that journey that journey that we have still to complete and there is much ground to cover and to try and respond to in today's debate but I don't want to leave this chamber without focusing on two issues that are vitally important and that's on funding and also on children and I suppose if I can say gently to Douglas Ross it's not just about the organisations and the people you visit at the end of the day it is about how you vote and you'll be held to account on how you vote maybe later because I'm keen it's my prerogative to call you Mr Ross, thank you very much because you can try again later but the point that I really wanted to make that in terms of this Government's record we have invested record levels of funding nearly £12 million from the equality budget investment has been held since 2012 despite the challenges that have been experienced locally and nationally in terms of shrinking public sector finances and it's important to recognise that the extra £20 million from the justice budget over a three-year period with a portion of that being invested into the court system to make it more effective to reduce court waiting times and to increase the advocacy that's available to survivors and as a Government we have a clear manifesto commitment to the voluntary sector as a whole and that includes organisations like Scottish Women's Aid and rape crisis centres that we want to move to three-year funding as soon as we can to provide that certainty and clarity and we will be in that spirit supporting Labour's amendment tonight but also briefly I'm grateful to the cabinet secretary who's alluding to decisions that I have taken as a Murray councillor can she remind me of the position taken by the Murray SNP group in terms of funding for Murray Women's Aid at that particular budget meeting and the subsequent budget meetings well I'm here to account for how I've voted and for my Government you Mr Ross you Mr Ross as I understand it either continue to be a councillor or have been a councillor very recently so I won't demure from my decisions or my voting record I suspect you're doing a bit of a shuffle to try and avoid yours but I do want to stress Presiding Officer no thanks you haven't been in this debate you've been absent from this debate so I won't take an intervention from you Mr Finlay but the point the point I want to make Presiding Officer you can shout at me all you want Mr Finlay can I say that local government are equal partners in terms of our equally safe strategy and that we jointly chair the joint strategic board on violence against women and girls and it's important to stress because this is an important point that COSLA are working very closely with Scottish Women's Aid on producing guidance for the commissioning of local domestic abuse services and that will be published before the end of the year and I hope that that goes some way also to providing some certainty for local organisations Kezia Dugdale I think rightly raised an important point about housing and I think there are many aspects of the domestic abuse debate that touches upon the provision of housing we of course as a government have a commitment to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes despite the uncertain financial times and this post Brexit world that we are about to encounter we have not rolled back from our commitment to invest £3 billion in delivering affordable housing but the other point that she makes briefly Kezia Dugdale I wonder if the cabinet secretary is aware that if you live in East Lothian you get additional points in the housing system for having been a victim of domestic abuse whether she welcomes that approach and would encourage other local authorities to do likewise what we are about to get on was that Kevin Stewart, the housing minister has been actively engaged both with Scottish Women's Aid and local authorities about variable practice in terms of implementing housing policy and in particular homelessness policy so there is indeed work to be done there to ensure that there is an accessible standard of practice across the country I want to move on to the importance of children in this debate that is absolutely imperative and if I can echo the words of Alex Cole-Hamilton that the voice of our children has to be heard and we have certainly reflected upon that and have adapted about how we work in terms of the input into the equally safe programme where the voice of young people and young people's organisations has been supported and enhanced but also in terms of how we move on now to deliver equally safe because it is imperative to recognise that one in five children will experience domestic abuse by the time that they are 18 years of age and we can't demure from the impact that domestic abuse and the wider violence against women and girls the impact that that has upon children and when my son is a little bit older I will give him Ben Macpherson's speech and what it really means to be a man because how we support and nurture the growth of our children in terms of really getting to grips with some of the negative stereotypes and attitudes is absolutely imperative and that's important as we raise our girls that they are empowered but it's equally important that we raise our boys to know what it really means to be a man in an equal world and the fact is that violence against women and girls is something that takes place across the world every minute of every hour, every day and we've not always recognised this violence for what it is but I do believe that that is changing and taking forward steps to ratify the Istanbul convention is important in ensuring that change continues and I want to quote Marsha Scott again from Women's Aid when she said that the Istanbul convention is probably the very best piece of violence against women policy that has been written ever anywhere and that the UK Government has now within its grasp the opportunity to make history and we are urging the UK Government to make history and to seize the opportunity and to stop dragging their feet and to make more progress they've had for years and of course I also commend the work of Dr Ailey Whiteford to bring her forward her bill but it's a shame that she has had to bring forward a bill it is now time for the UK Government to ratify the Istanbul convention and if they do they will have the full and hearty support of this Government Thank you that concludes our debate on ending violence against women and girls the next item of business is consideration of business motion 2898 in the name of Jovis Patrick on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau on behalf of the business programme I would ask any member who wishes to speak against the motion to press their request to speak but now in a call on Jovis Patrick to move motion 2898 Thank you and no member has asked to speak against the motion I'll put the question to the chamber the question is that we agree motion 2898 are we all agreed? We are agreed there are three questions to be put as a result of today's business the first question is that amendment 2820.1 in the name of Douglas Ross which seeks to amend motion 2820 in the name of Angela Constance on recognising 16 days of action to end violence against women and girls be agreed, are we all agreed? We're not agreed, we'll move to a vote and members may cast their votes now the result of the vote on the amendment in the name of Douglas Ross is yes 28 no 86 there are no obsensions the amendment is therefore not agreed the next question is that amendment 2820.2 in the name of Kezia Dugdale which seeks to amend the motion in the name of Angela Constance be agreed are we all agreed? we are all agreed and the final question is that motion 2820 in the name of Angela Constance as amended be agreed are we all agreed? that concludes decision time I now close this meeting appointment