 The next item of business is a debate on motion 7.002, in the name of Christina McKelvie, on recognising the vital role men must play in challenging and eradicating violence against women and girls. I would ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons or enter RTS in the chat function and I call on Christina McKelvie, minister, to speak to and to move the motion around 13 minutes, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. It is, of course, right that this Parliament collectively recognises the global campaign 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, which highlights the brutality that women across the world still face, but yet it is also with a sense of regret that we have to do so at all. That in itself ensures that a spotlight is on what remains of the most difficult challenges facing our society, both here in Scotland and throughout the world, violence perpetrated against women by men. Of course, it is not all men in any way, but we examine the underlying causes of such violence so that we can prevent it. We must change the everyday sexism in misogyny and society here and elsewhere, which can help perpetuate violence or support people to look away when they should speak up, and that is where we are seeing a shift in society now. Men are recognising that they have a role to play to stand against violence against women and girls to change the way they behave and to call out behaviour amongst other men. Men's silence can feel unsupportive or even condoning of the violence that women and girls experience. As a philosopher Paolo Freer says, washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. It is vital that men speak out. We need men to lead by example to their friends, their family, their children. I say to men that we need you to reflect on your past experiences, we need you to reflect on the times that you may have inadvertently been permissive about misogynistic values because of the way it was framed as a joke or maybe just banter. We need to look critically about how the power and balance has impacted those who we know and love, and we need you to carry those messages proactively to the men around you. Men must take the lead in this challenge. They hold a unique place in changing their peers, even when it is challenging their peers, even when it might be uncomfortable. Believe me, that discomfort is less damaging than being a victim of violence. That is what is refreshing about Police Scotland's guy campaign. It is an excellent example of men standing up to be counted to the campaign, challenges casual sexism and encourages self-reflection, urging men to take responsibility for their actions and those of their peers to help effect a culture change to tackle sexual crime against women. The current phase asks men to challenge their friends behaviour, talking openly to male friends about behaviour that is damaging to women. First launch in October 2021, the online campaign has been viewed more than 6 million times globally and has been adapted for use in countries worldwide. The onus of the campaign is on men changing their behaviour, not women. As women, we already do that. We modify our behaviour every single day. We certainly do not want to stop our evening run in the park because it gets dark early. We should not have to walk from the bus stop with our keys rammed in our hands in case somebody jumps you. We should not have to take a different route home to avoid a group of men and we certainly should not be telling our daughters to cross the road if a man is walking behind them. None of us should have to put up with the sexism, misogyny or the subject to be subject to abuse and violence, yet it is still happening the world over. Whilst I recognise that change is happening, it is not taking place at a pace that we would expect or can accept. We need to do more. Collectively, that is why men must speak up and they must act. Last Friday, the first day of the 16 days of activism, I spoke at the North East Violence Against Women forum. Other speakers, including Ryan Hart, who is coercively controlling father, murdered his mother and sister in 2016, and Kirsty Spencer, who lost her sister, spoke so eloquently and powerfully about her sister, Dawn Rhodes, after her husband killed her in their family home. They provided a stark message to the harm caused to individuals, their families and friends and to society of such violence. They also raised the necessity of professionals understanding the issues and responding in both a risk and trauma informed way. We also heard from those in the front line providing essential support to victim survivors about the necessity of continuing to focus on this issue and building capacity and confidence to deal with it. I fully endorse the very clear messages that emerged from the forum around the need to maintain momentum, not just today but throughout the year. Addressing violence against women is not a task for just these 16 days, it is a task for 365 days a year and each and every year. That is how we can make a difference not just today in this debate but every day in how we speak, how we work and how we act. That is why the work of the Equally Safe Strategy, co-authored and owned by COSLA, is so vital. The strategy and the accompanying delivery plan has been a key driver for many improvements made. Those include changes to legislation, increase in funding, work to drive forward prevention approaches and capacity building for the workforce. I will continue to work with partners to continue that momentum and ensure that Equally Safe's strategic approach delivers and continues to deliver the galvanising focus that it has to date. We are investing record levels of funding in front line support services, capacity building projects and prevention. Our delivery in Equally Safe Fund is providing £19 million per year to support 121 projects that focus on early intervention, prevention and support services. The Scottish Government is committed to providing funding that works most effectively to improve outcomes for those who are using the services, such as an independent strategic review of funding to tackle violence against women and girls is under way. I look forward to seeing the report's recommendations in the summer of 2023. Will the member take an intervention? I thank the minister for taking the intervention. You talk about the risks, the capacity and momentum, and I would be wholeheartedly support you in that minister and the funding that is required, but there is still a massive issue about capacity. When we see the number of domestic abuse situations continuing to rise, we are still at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making sure that that momentum is maintained. I remind members that we need to speak through the chair. Earlier this month I met members of the Equally Safe Joint Strategic Board to discuss our next steps. We recognise that it is only through all of our collective endeavours working together across the system that violence against women can be eradicated. We discussed a range of issues, around the aims and delivery of the strategy and the importance of an intersectional approach, which recognises that many women face intersecting marginalisation, for example disabled women and minority ethnic women. We acknowledge that, while there had been very real progress, there is still much work to do and that we need to be transparent and inclusive about that work. Our Equally Safe Strategy has a real focus on prevention. We continue to take forward a range of actions in schools to address gender-based violence and sexual harassment, rape crisis. Scotland provides a national sexual prevention violence prevention programme to local authority secondary schools across Scotland. Through our Delivery Equally Safe Fund, Engender has been funded to explore primary prevention policy approaches and create a toolkit to enable policy makers to embed primary prevention in policy making. We will continue to work with those stakeholders to further develop our approach in this area through the next phase of Equally Safe. If Mr Stewart is keen to hear about that, I would be happy to discuss it with him, because I think that it will answer his intervention. Our mentors in violence prevention programme is working to tackle gender stereotyping and attitudes that condone violence against women and girls. Whilst educating children and young people and challenging outdated stereotypes is important, perhaps the even bigger challenge is delivering a societal shift where women are truly equal because we recognise that violence against women and girls is both a cause and consequence of systemic and deep rooted gender inequality. We need to make progress in advancing women's equality. You have just talked earlier about ethnic minorities in BAME communities. It would be good to ask the minister what sort of work they are doing with the Scottish Government out there reaching out to the men of the BAME communities, because we also know that the culture is so different from the females and also from the western men. How are we reaching out to them to make sure that they are supporting the women and girls? That is exactly what the debate is about and the work that we are doing with our diverse communities across the equally safe strategic board and the work that we have been doing to talk to all those diverse communities, because this is about challenging men. It is about challenging those male perspectives as well. I will pick up on that in my closing comments as well. I will pick up as we go along. We really need to make progress in advancing women's equality in a range of spaces, economic, civic, social and cultural. The work of the First Minister's National Advisory Council on Women and Girls has made a vital contribution and a key priority for us is in continuing to engage and respond to their recommendations. The Justice Secretary will say more, but I will touch on the Domestic Abuse Scotland Act and our new legislation, which better reflects the experiences of survivors by criminalising coercive control. If anybody has not heard Ryan Hart speak about the situation that he was in, you will completely understand why we had to do what we did when it came about criminalising coercive control. The act has been acknowledged as a gold standard, recognises the experience of children as victims and shows that this Government is taking action. I would like now to turn to our engagement, which may answer some of Pam Goswell's points that she raised in her intervention. Those who have experienced an issue understand it the most deeply. We recognise that. That is why victim survivors of violence against women are and must remain at the heart of everything that we do. We must be held to account by them. I also recognise that those who work in specialist support organisations have amassed a wealth of experience from supporting victim survivors over many years. Their insights and wisdom are valued by us, and we will continue to work with those stakeholders as we develop our policy responses. For example, I know that, just last week, officials working on UKLE Safe met specialists working with minority ethnic women, and I would be happy to share that information with Pam Goswell if she is interested in that. The purpose was to ensure regular engagement, building our capacity to take an intersectional approach to your work, and, similarly, expertise from those delivering the services central to the newly formed domestic homicide task force. I would like to pay tribute to all of those organisations and workers whose work I know is truly transformative in the support that they offer. I also recognise the need for greater focus around how we engage with young people. We must never presume to know how best to involve our young people. Similarly, it would be wrong to make ill-informed judgments around how they communicate and engage with each other, and with those of us from older generations. We must ask them, and we must involve them, which is why this Government has been working with members of the Scottish Youth Parliament to ensure and improve our engagement with younger people. I believe that we must seek their guidance on how we address the societal drivers, which so disappointingly in Scotland in 2022 mean that some men and boys still see violence against women and girls as acceptable. That must be challenged. In conclusion, this year's 16-day global theme is unite activism to end violence against women and girls, focusing on galvanising efforts, sharing knowledge and working together. That theme recognises that it is only by uniting and taking action that we can tackle, prevent and ultimately end violence against women and girls. I move the motion in my name. I thank the member for bringing such an important debate to Parliament. I am honoured to be opening the debate on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives. In my second debate this month, marking the international day for elimination for the violence against women, it is disappointing that in 2022 women are still suffering so many acts of violence every single day, a feeling that is no doubt shared with every member in today's debate. It is truly promising to see so many men in the chamber today advocating for elimination of violence against women and girls. Last year's debate, I recall that members expressed disappointment that there were not enough men in the chamber. Right, they should have done so. As today's motion points out, the eradication of violence against women and girls cannot be achieved unless men recognise a role that they must play in that. Like the minister said, it is vital that men speak out. Today, I am thankful that there are many examples of men who recognise that responsibility and can act as role models to young men around the world. I would like to give a special mention to some of my colleagues, Russell Finlay, who, weak in, weak out, who has a voice for many victims of violence and abuse, my colleague Brian Whittle, who proudly champions the empowerment of women and girls, particularly through sport, and Alexandra Stewart, who has always supported these debates in Parliament and who has spoken from the heart about his own experience of this issue. My colleague Jamie Greene, whose victims' law would put victims, not perpetrators, at the centre of our justice system. Those are all examples of the steps that men can take to promote a culture where tackling the causes of violence against women and girls is the norm. I am proud to have those individuals as colleagues. However, as is often said in those debates, there is still more to be done. Yesterday, I saw the release of the updated domestic abuse statistics for 2021 to 2022. I was sad to see that so little has changed. The tiny decrease in the number of domestic abuse incidents reported by Police Scotland shows just how little progress has been made. There has been a drop of less than 1 per cent from record high of over 65,000 incidents reported in 2020 to 2021. Even more shockingly, 64 per cent of those incidents were repeat offences. Those statistics are a sign that something is still not working in Scotland's justice system, and we must continue pushing for further reform. This year, I have spoken to so many fantastic domestic abuse organisations who are doing such amazing work out there with the community to support victims of domestic abuse, but there is only so much they can do when they are swimming against such a strong tide of domestic abuse incidents. That is why I am pleased that my proposed domestic abuse prevention bill has received such strong support so far. Over 20 organisations have supported my proposal, and more than 90 per cent of those who responded to my consultation were supportive. My proposed bill would aim to tackle the problem of domestic abuse from every angle. It would provide additional checks on abusers to prevent them from moving from place to place and victim to victim. It would also introduce mandatory rehabilitation for those who are guilty of domestic abuse. As I said earlier, reoffences make up majority of the domestic abuse incidents, and we must stop the cycle in which abusers simply move on to their next victim. Domestic abuse is something that can affect all of us. It is an issue above party politics. I therefore hope that the members from all sides of the chamber will consider supporting my proposals. I am, of course, happy to support the Government's motion today, but there have been developments in the last week that need to be addressed. It is important that Parliament is given the opportunity to address the elephant in the room. The amendment in my name seeks to draw attention to the comments last week by the United Nations expert on violence against women and girls. Rhym Asalim, which we cannot ignore. Speaking about the Scottish National Party's gender recognition reforms, Rhym has stated that these— I thank the member for taking an intervention. Predatory men do exist. They do not need to dress as a woman or sign a statutory declaration for a gender recognition certificate to attack women. I am asking the member if she finds it important that we do not conflate trans people with predatory men. You are absolutely right. There has to be a balance to this, which I have said, in all the committees that I have represented. I am doing this so that trans people do not get in any way pointed out to say that this is wrong or right. There has to be a balance, absolutely, but we do not want to be harming anybody. We want to make the legislation right for everybody, for women, girls and trans people. That is what I would like to say to the member. Speaking about the Scottish National Party's gender recognition reforms, Rhym has stated that these would potentially open the door for violent males who identify as men to abuse the process of acquiring a GRC and the rights associated with it. She has also highlighted the importance of ensuring that all voices are heard on this issue, which is very important. That is why we have a Parliament here, in which we always say that it is your Parliament, so we want to make sure that those voices perciting officers are heard in here. My amendment merely asks Parliament to note those comments. The chamber should be clear that it is vital that every possible threat to the safety of women and girls is acknowledged in concluding perciting officer, until the attitudes of society as a whole change, and until every man accepts his responsibility to prevent violence against women, we will not see real progress towards eradicating violence against women. In order to bring real change, we must, firstly, continue to back the amazing efforts of domestic abuse organisations who carry out such important work in all their communities. Secondly, acknowledge the importance of having strong role male models in this area so that young boys can grow up aspiring to carry on their work. Last but not least, we must work together to ensure the violence against women and girls, no matter where it comes from, is condemned wherever we encounter it. I now call on Pauline McNeill to speak to and move amendment 7002.1. Around seven minutes, please, Ms McNeill. Thank you very much. I am pleased to open this debate on behalf of Scottish Labour in 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. We welcome the subject of the Government's debate on men's role and men's responsibility for violence against women and girls. As Christina McKelvie rightly said, it is the key to reversing this horrendous picture of violent sexual harassment towards women and girls. In my speech, I wanted to address in some detail Labour's amendment on the inclusion of cybercrime in the role of social media and Pam Duncan-Glan's enclosing world, or some of the wider points. I hope that ministers will understand that we were keen to support the Government's position when we wanted to get this addition so that we could have a specific inclusion in the debate of cybersexual crime. We are committed to working with the Scottish Government. In fact, we have launched our own consultation paper last week called Changing the Future for Women and Girls, because we want to be part of this conversation. 31 years after inventing the worldwide web in 2020, Tim Berns Lee declared that the web is not working for girls and women. By not working, I think that what he really means is that wider smart technology is part of the problem. That is because gender-based cyber violence in the form of sexual harassment, trolling messages, threatening rape and murder, or leaking private pictures and videos without consent, has become rampant in our society. Digital technology arguably has changed the shape and the nature of violence against women and girls in the 21st century. As many members have debated in this Parliament in these debates before, the burgeoning rape culture in our schools across the UK, teenagers experienced sexual harassment on a huge scale, and the Sunday Post found that three out of five girls had endured some form of sexual harassment. I am sure that we agree that boys need to be taught not to put pressure on girls, and that girls need to be empowered to say no. Far from making progress, in some ways I feel that we might be losing the battle. I am very grateful to my friend Bench giving way. Do you also agree with me that because of the prevalence in our schools and education system that some responsibility needs to be taken by both the schools and the educational institutions over the vehicle, i.e. the Wi-Fi, that some of that pornography and abuse is transferred? Yes, I recognise that. It is something that we should investigate in a deeper way, just to see how we could actually restrict this further. I do agree, because the social media age and the use of Snapchat on Instagram and TikTok, for example, can cause serious harm, and we have seen that in other ways. We must seek to understand exactly what is going on, what is the origin of the problem, male violence against girls, and we need to ensure that we are supporting young men in our schools to change their behaviours or nothing will change. A report last year by academics from several universities highlighted that sending and receiving unsolicited sexual images is becoming dangerously normalised, and I need to emphasise that it is unsolicited messages. It found that over half of the boys and girls who received unwanted sexual content online had an image shared without their consent, and nothing was done about it. Girls are pressurised to trade intimate images with boys who send pictures unsolicited inevitably where they are mocked or bullied when their photographs get shared amongst classmates. We know that children and young people are more susceptible to peer pressure, cyberbullying and sexing, all activities involving digital communication making navigating the online social world to treacherous at times. Some teachers have warned against the self-styled wealth guru accused of spreading misogyny on social media, and for the purposes of this point, I am not going to name the person, but if you have been following it, you will know who I am talking about, promoting serious harmful content online. In one video, this man describes how he would punish a woman who accused him of being unfaithful as, bang out the machete boom in her face and grip her by the neck. Apologies for the shocking language, but this is out there on social media. Unfortunately, it is followed by literally millions—I presume—of boys and girls, but certainly males. He is not a fringe personality lurking in the obscure corner of the dark web. In fact, he has 11.6 billion views of the video that was put out. We know that most men, as Christina McKelvie says rightly, do not hold violent or misogynistic views against women, but we need more men to speak up, and if they don't, we will simply will not reverse the problem. Again, I commend Police Scotland's Don't Be That Guy campaign to encourage men to call out sexist and misogynistic behaviour of their male peers, friends, family members and work colleagues. It is the only way. This is a chance of changing. We want to build on this important work by tackling sexism and misogynism in schools, and as I have said many times, I do support the Equally Safe programme. I would like to know a wee bit more about it, and I would like to see it rolled out in more schools. We need to realise that boys and men who need to change their behaviour are perhaps not going to seek this kind of information, so we need to make them seek them out to change their views. Women and girls of Scotland cannot face this alone. Scottish Labour would also say that this is down to men to change their behaviour for policy makers to lead in a way that is changing our society both on and online. Now is the time to put in place long overdue protections for women and girls against cyber violence, and now is the time to educate boys and men on the seriousness of perpetuating violence against women and girls online. Every day sexism is part of the problem. We need to tackle it at every single level, not just in tackling domestic abuse, rape, street harassment and all the crimes against women and girls across the world, but we need a radical strategy to tackle sexism and misogynistic attitudes. I look forward to justice reform that can make the difference in creating new crimes around the crime of misogyny in this Parliament as part of our work around this question. I now call on Beatrice Wishart. Violence against women and girls is underpinned by a culture of sexism and misogyny. Sexism and sexual harassment are normalised in our society. Daily occurrences are not called out and are not recognised as violence against women. The Compass Centre, also known as Shetland Rape Crisis, created an awareness-raising project called Safer Shetland. The almost 200 submissions make for sobering reading. Anonymous contributors describe experiences of sexual violence, including harassment, assault, abuse and rape that occurred in Shetland. One writes, an old man made comments about my appearance that made me feel really uncomfortable. I was only 16 and the adult standing next to me didn't do anything to help. Another, when I speak up about men learing, people tell me to dress more appropriately, even though it has nothing to do with what I wear. A third, one day on a bus when I was 16, a much older man sexually harassed me. Everyone sitting near to us on the bus could hear but didn't tell him to stop. A common thread is clear. Buy standards and witnesses to sexual harassment, ignore the problem, blame the victim or pretend they can't hear or perhaps all three. It's everyone's responsibility to call out sexual harassment and sexist behaviour whenever and wherever it occurs. Men have a particular role to play. Police Scotland's That Guy campaign made a positive contribution, urging men to take responsibility for ending sexual violence by changing their own behaviours and challenging those of their peers. It's only with the active participation of men that harmful norms can be fully challenged. Presiding Officer, for many women going to work involves facing sexual and sexist harassment day after day. In one survey, half of women responded that upon starting a new job, they were warned to expect inappropriate behaviour from particular colleagues. Workplaces need clear anti-harassment policies and anti-sexism education for all employees. For women from oppressed and minoritised groups, sexual and sexist harassment interacts with all other forms of discrimination, stereotyping and prejudice, all of which must be addressed to end violence against women and girls. Key work to prevent violence against women starts in schools. Boys and young men need positive male role models who stand up to violence against women. Rape crisis Scotland run prevention workshops covering gender, consent and the impacts of sexual violence. Shetland women's aid works to prevent domestic abuse. I had the privilege of being a trustee of the organisation and I commend the important work that they do to support women and families impacted by domestic abuse. As part of the 16 days of activism, Shetland women's aid in the compass centre have staged a play with creative input from survivors about the impacts of coercive control. Shining a light on these stories is important. To end violence against women and girls, we must be able to have these uncomfortable conversations, to understand the extent of the problem and for men particularly to confront each other's behaviour. Presiding Officer, the Scottish Government must make every possible endeavour to end violence, men's violence against women and girls. Practical help is needed for organisations working to end gender-based violence. Limited access to legal aid continues to be a barrier to women seeking justice. Scotland needs accessible, specific legal aid services for women affected by domestic abuse. Finally, I have repeatedly called on the Scottish Government to establish a national commission to end violence against women and girls. Bringing together charities and experts on gender-based violence, the commission could inform policy and practice in Scotland. I repeat this call for a commission today. We owe it to all women affected by men's violence to act now. Thank you, Presiding Officer. We will now move to the open debate. I call Rona Mackay to be followed by Brian Whittle. I have been speaking in debates on 16 days of activism against gender-based violence since 2016. Six years of highlighting with others in this chamber about the destructive vile impact that gender-based violence has on society, not just here in Scotland but globally. This year, the theme calls for us to recognise the role that men must play in challenging and eradicating this scourge. I could not agree more. Tackling gender-based violence should not be left to women. We are not the problem. Men must call out vile behaviour at every level whenever it happens or wherever it happens. They must not turn a blind eye to their peers, families or friends, when misogyny and discrimination has been perpetrated, because it violates women, diminishes our society and demeans men. Of course, I know that not all men participate in this, but sadly a significant number do. That is why Police Scotland's Don't Be That Guy campaign is a very positive move to shift the wider cultural problem and a huge move in the right direction. Campaigns in debates like this will not change things overnight. Generations of women's suffering, misogyny, discrimination and violence is like a stubborn stain that requires constant reworking and a massive amount of effort to remove, but it is possible. As co-convener of the cross-party group of violence against women and children, we recognise that gender inequality cannot be separated from other forms of inequality. Primary prevention should address all forms of inequality. That prevention must start with education and engaging with boys and young men. That engagement can be difficult, but it can be done. As rape crisis says, children and young people cannot be expected to change cultural norms by themselves. We need to see robust and bold leadership from adult men from all walks of society. Men must be the adults in the room and speak out against sexual violence and misogyny. I wish we did not have to have this debate every year, because every year we highlight terrible statistics—murders, stalking, domestic abuse, disfigurement, afghan girls being sold to pay for food to fight famine, sexual war crimes currently being committed in Ukraine, and it is beyond sickening. However, every day disrespect, name calling, discrimination and unconscious bias are all sickening examples, too. Helena Kennedy QC's excellent report, Misogyny, a human rights issue, lays it bare. Giving evidence to the criminal justice committee earlier this year, Baroness Kennedy said, I was shocked, and I say that as someone who's a pretty died-in-the-wale criminal lawyer who thought she's seen and heard at all. Every single woman or group that appeared in front of us was saying something had to be done. As something has been done, the Scottish Government has committed to act on the working group's recommendations by creating a new offence of misogyny. In fact, Scotland punches above its weight with its excellent third sector organisations, such as Scottish Women's Aid, rape crisis and gender, zero tolerance closed the gap, white ribbon who engage with men and boys and many more who protect and support women every day. We've led the way in creating a zero tolerance position to domestic abuse by creating the world's first domestic abuse offence, which explicitly recognised coercive and controlling behaviours which are equally abusive as physical violence. We also continue to implement and fund the delivering equally safe strategy to prevent and eradicate all forms of violence against women and girls, but there's always a need to do more, and we will continue to expand our efforts to combat the scourge. There's one area in which neither the Scottish Government nor the excellent organisations that are just named above can help. That's with regard to migrant women in this country. UK immigration law dictates that migrant women fleeing abuse who are destitute or in very low incomes are not entitled to government benefits. How mentally damaging is that to migrant women, often with their children, to be trapped with an abuser? The UK law on this must change or immigration powers must be devolved to Scotland so that we can change the subscene system and help every woman in this country. The theme of Scottish women's aids 16 days this year is around the cost of living and the desperate impact that this is having on women trapped by abuse. The cost of leaving can be fatal and they're holding an online vigil tomorrow to remember all women and children who've died because of domestic abuse. You can get further details on that on their website. We must all make a conscious and collective effort to challenge racism, homophobia, transphobia and classism and strive to promote social and economic justice. That can start in our own constituencies and regions. We're privileged to have a public platform to do this and we must ensure that we're promoting and normalising gender equality in everything that we do. To conclude, we must stand together, men and women, for all the women and girls throughout the world who've lost their lives through gender-based violence, women or who have been abused, degraded and traumatised. It's time to turn the tide and violence against women here and now. I am privileged to be able to contribute to this important debate and I thank the Scottish Government for tabling the time to take part. According to Engender, the root cause of violence against women is gender inequality, which continues to impact all aspects of women's lives in Scotland. I think that we would all agree that we have come some way, at least in my lifetime, at recognising the inequalities that exist in our society and that we have begun to take positive steps that we need to do to tackle them. Even in my background of sport women have closed the gap significantly on the inequalities that existed. It was only in 1984 that women contested the Olympic marathon for the first time. They couldn't run further than 3,000 metres on the track, they didn't do the steeple chase or the hammer or the triple jump of the pole vault. Now women have equity in the events that they can compete in. However, let's not kid ourselves on here that we're anywhere near the journey's end when it comes to this inequality. So what can men do? Well, we can listen, we can start these conversations, we can take part in these conversations and, most importantly, we can speak out. It's important that we recognise violence as not only physical, violence as actions or words that cause harm. We need to get to the root of violence and assess it throughout our society. It is key to address the myths around violence against women head on. Violence is not a one-off isolated incident but a structural problem built into our society. So I want to talk about structural violence. That anthropological term to describe violence committed by structures in our society is the violence inherent in unjust social, political and economic systems. This violence cannot be traced back or blamed on one individual but it's rather represented by a complex web of interdependent relationships. These are the laws we make and the belief systems our society operates under. When we make up just over 45 per cent of this Parliament with men in the majority, so we need to listen when we make laws. I have to mention here, as my colleague Pam Gossel, the Gender Recognition Bill, which is, I believe, currently structured as it's currently structured continues a cycle of inequality and opens up opportunity for physical and structural violence, of course. I thank the member for taking the intervention. I'm just concerned that we're really conflating here the Gender Recognition Act with men's responsibility for gender-based violence. We should not be standing here passing the blame onto the rights for other people. This lies solely at the feet of men, predatory men. I absolutely agree with you on that point. The trouble is that, as the UN special reporter Rem Absalom said, those proposals don't sufficiently take into consideration specific needs of women and girls in all the diversity. Here's the key to this. Police Scotland have received 521 notifications of sex offenders, sex offenders changing their name in the last three years, according to an FOI by the Herald. It's those predators that are a danger to women. It's those predators that are actually a danger to the trans women as well. The SNP and Scottish Greens struck down Russell Finlay's amendment to make it harder for those sexual predators to change gender. That's what I would like to say to the member. That's not about anti-trans sentiment at all, but it's ensuring we write good legislation to prevent that structural violence. We must ensure that women and trans women feel safe, accessing help or we risk moving backwards. I'd like to move on to Michelle's law. Michelle Stewart was murdered at the age of 17 by John Wilson in air. I met her mother several times in my surgeries. He was given a sentence of 12 years and was approved for unescorted access back into the community for eight days at a time in 2018 after serving just nine years. Michelle's family have launched a campaign after saying that it was unbelievably painful to see her killer on the street, on the bus or in the shops. She said to me how fearful she was going out doing simple things, simple things like going to the shops for the family shop, because she was terrified that she would bump into this man. Even while he was in prison, she was terrified of bumping into this man's father, who also intimidated her. Michelle's father said that zero action has been taken by the Government. He said that in two years there have been no changes and he added that he thought it was becoming law but it has disappeared. It's time we started taking action against this kind of injustice. I wanted to briefly talk about social and economic systems. I was in London at the weekend there and my ex-business partner who was raising capital said that he didn't realise how hard it was to raise capital for a business run by women. Pregnancy can be used in calculations of affordability of mortgages, causing application rejection, reduction in the amount of loan. Pregnancy is protected under the Equalities Act in Santander, who was an example I had there. There are terms of condition state that they do not discriminate against pregnant women. Yes, they do. Medical health inequalities in treatment and research studies by the University of Chicago and the University of California suggest that women have been widely overmedicated in suffering excess side effects because drug doses are calculated based on studies done overwhelmingly on men's subject. I realise that I'm coming to an end here, Deputy Presiding Officer. We must make sure that women and girls experience equality throughout all of the socially created systems that are medical financial within the workplace and not least of all of the laws and systems that the Government has to name but a few. We have travelled far, we have a long way to go and many especially men need to be prepared to step forward and challenge behaviour of those around us, Deputy Presiding Officer. I now call Bill Kidd to be followed by Martin Whitfield, our next six minutes please, Mr Kidd. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and thank you also to the Minister for Equalities, Christina McKelvie, who has brought the issue of pervasive violence against women and girls to the attention of the Scottish Parliament today in response to the UN 16 days of activism campaign. As the motion for debate sets out, we must uproot the cultural acceptance of the various forms of misogyny which permeates Scottish society. Misogyny is the hatred of contempt for or prejudice against women, that's the term, that's where it means, that's where it means in real life for many people. As deputy convener of the cross-party group on human trafficking, I have been privileged to work with organisations tackling one of the worst forms of exploitation against women and girls, that's commercial sexual exploitation. We often think that this is an issue far away from Scotland, but this isn't the case. In 2020, the largest group of identified trafficking and modern slavery victims in the UK were British. The Salvation Army recorded an increase of 79 per cent in the number of domestically trafficked people in the UK, and 39 per cent of people supported were victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Globally, 99 per cent of victims of sex trafficking are women and girls, so this is a highly gendered issue, and we can anticipate that women and girls trafficked and exploited in the UK of any nationality are most likely victims of commercial sexual exploitation, whether that be in prostitution, stripping or live-streamed abuse pornography. UN House Scotland, the secretariat of the human trafficking cross-party group, highlighted in their recent women's voices podcast series how closely linked femicide is to sexual exploitation. Retired US attorney Linda Abraham, an advocacy consultant for Seroptimus International, spoke about violence against women. She told listeners that, since the inception of the UN, we have been discussing this injustice, but here we are in 2022. In many cases, issues have got worse, such as domestic violence increasing during the pandemic. A lot of serial killers are targeting sex workers. Girls have to be included, too. Girls are some of the most vulnerable victims around. I think that this is something that we need to listen to today. Girls are extremely vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse, especially those who are care experienced. In this Parliament, we took steps to incorporate the UN convention on the rights of the child to recognise legally anyone under the age of 18 as a child and afford them rights on this basis, yet more needs to be done. Vice recently reported on the growing number of British children in poverty who are vulnerable to domestic sex trafficking. They shared the harrowing story of Emily. Emily was coaxed by her friend's stepfather into moving packets of cocaine for him. He then trafficked her into commercial sexual exploitation. She was 11 years of age. When Emily was 14, she was gang raped by three men in an empty swimming complex. The 14-year-old Emily spiralled into substance abuse, which she said made her even more reliant on a string of sex traffickers. That story shows the complexity of the power that traffickers can hold over their victims in prostitution. I felt dead, Emily said. She went on to say, this sounds weird, but it actually felt normal. You start to rationalise everything in your head. It becomes safe and away and you get used to the chaos. If she had to guess a number, she estimated that more than 1,500 men had raped her as a teenager. This story of abuse repeats itself again and again. The national crime agency estimates that of the 1,115 officially confirmed sex trafficked women in 2017, they endured 3.3 million sexual assaults. That means that each of the women and girls were raped almost 3,000 times before managing to find support to exit prostitution and escape their traffickers. Twenty years after Emily was first trafficked as an 11-year-old, she felt able to report her experience to the national referring mechanism, the NRM. Emily is now free from prostitution. She is in her 30s, she had a son and incredibly and so bravely works as an advocate in the anti-slavery sector to speak on behalf of those who are enduring today what she endured as a child. Women and girls currently subject to abuse and coercion have little power to leave their situation, let alone lobby the Government. However, we can listen to the survivors who are no longer under coercive, abusive control, such as those involved in the A Model for Scotland campaign. We must also listen to the likes of organisations such as the OSCE, IJM, A21, Hope for Justice, SOTUS, UN House Scotland, Care for Scotland and Unseen. Those are the people who are combating narratives, legitimising sex trafficking, prosecuting abusers and delivering support for the women and children exploited in this £80 billion a year global industry. In this Parliament, we have the powers to ban some of the worst excesses of violence against women. Today, criminality falls on women in prostitution, those who are being systematically raped and are living in situations of horrific abuse. Those women, many of whom are exploited since childhood, have no legal entitlements to help them exit prostitution, yet those who commit the exploitation, the pimps, who legally can call themselves sex workers, are effectively unchallenged and continue to profit on this cruelty. Moreover, men who purchase sex, physically and personally commit the violence, have complete impunity. That is an undeniable misogynist aspect of the legal system. We must criminalise the men who participate in the systematic violence against women and girls in Scotland by banning the purchase of sex, pornography and strip clubs. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr Kidd. I now call Markham Fwickfield to be followed by Co-Cab Stewart. Around six minutes please, Mr Fwickfield. Can I? Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. It is a pleasure to follow Bill Kidd's speech talking of the evils of commercial sexual exploitation. I would like to start this contribution by referring back to the member's debate that was sponsored by Pam Gosal on 23 November past and the very many powerful contributions that were made during that debate. I was again shocked and saddened by the statistic that one woman in three has experienced violence. As the UN has pointed out, this is probably the most pervasive of all of the human rights violations that occur around the world. The figure of one in three struck me again because of the reason that the 25th of November was chosen as international day for the elimination of violence against women. That is because it is the anniversary of the death of the three sisters, Patricia Minerva and Maria Theresa, the Mirabel sisters from the Dominican Republic. Those three sisters stood up against a dictatorship and the violence that was being directed specifically at women. They paid the ultimate price with their murder in 1960 at the hands of men. It was also the added horror that that dictator and those henchmen tried to cover up that murder by pretending that it had been a car accident. It is the powerful words of Minerva who said, if they kill me, I will reach my arms out from the tomb and I'll be stronger. She was stronger. The women are stronger since that day, but because of their experiences that they have been forced to live, and indeed, as the Minister made out, women have already changed their behaviour and it is for men to do the same. The experiences of violence that women suffer are almost always delivered by men and they are living in an environment where men fail to step in, fail to call it out, fail to prevent such violence. I welcome this motion, but especially the sub clause that recognises the eradication of violence against women and girls cannot be achieved without men recognising the vital role that they must play on a daily basis in tackling deep-rooted sexism and misogyny that is inherent in the perpetration of such violence. I do so because it's simply not enough to say to oneself as a man that you won't commit violence against anyone, especially a woman or a girl, and then be content at just that. A man, 50.04% of the world's population must go further. They must positively act to ensure the world is a safe place for women and girls. Indeed, recognise that vital role that men must play in challenging and eradicating violence against women and girls. The prevalence of violence against women and girls has led to an idea that it is somehow inevitable. It's impossible to end. Well, this is just plain and simply wrong. Advances made during the Me Too era, the promises made following the high-profile cases like Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessar, but the momentum must remain and must not be allowed to fizzle out. Talking the talk is one thing, but Governments both at UK level and here in Scotland must continue to work towards equality and to end gender-based violence in Scotland, in the UK and around the world. But this responsibility to maintain momentum also rests with our communities. Now I wish to specifically talk to the men, because it's men who must take responsibility for violence against women not just in Scotland but around the world. It comes in so many forms from the sexual harassment, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, human trafficking, child-brides, rape, femicide, sex for rent, advertised online, revenge pornography, stealthing—these are all growing problems—spiking in our clubs and bars highlighted most recently. The number of women who are murder victims is alarmingly high, rape prosecutions and convictions repeatedly low. Councilist victims are being abandoning their trial due to delays. There were 16 women murdered here in Scotland in 2021, a 60 per cent increase on the previous year, but yet homicide statistics say that that crime is dropping. So why is that not reflected when the victim is a woman? The justice system needs to acknowledge the dangers that these specific groups face. However, let me return to the powerful words of Minerva. If they kill me, I will reach my arms out from the tomb and I will be stronger. Yes. But only if men take responsibility to call out those behaviour and actions by other men, stop the violence, support women and girls in the home, on the street, in their pub group with their friends, the changing rooms of their local team, the WhatsApp chat that happens and at work, wherever it happens, men must call it out and stop it. There should never be a situation where a woman or girl fears, let alone suffers violence. It does not matter who she is, it does not matter what her job is, it does not matter how she is chosen to dress, it does not matter how she is reacting to a situation, it does not matter, it is simply the way she looks. It should not happen. That responsibility of all, but it is on men who have not lived up to that responsibility in the past and not during these 16 days, which are crucially important, but every day of every week of every year. Let us make Minerva's message from her tomb be true today and going forward, and do not let another life be the price of the message that men need to hear that I will be stronger. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you, Mr Whitfield. I now call Co-Camp Sture to be followed by Maggie Chapman around six minutes, please, Mr Sture. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Women's life freedom, the rallying cry of Iran's protest movement, is the simple yet powerful one. Ignited by the death of 22-year-old Masa Amini in September, just days after her arrest, for letting too much hair show from under her headscarf, the uprising has been compounded by decades of anger and repression. Even the widespread execution of protesters has failed to diminish the resolve of those fighting for justice, and it is not just women who have found themselves on the front line. Among the protesters this month, journalist Scott Peterson reported that a team of three middle-aged men embarked on night-time missions. One drives, another films, and the third sprays anti-regime slogans and the names of those killed on the walls of militia, government and religious centres. Wishing to remain anonymous, they said, we are all like drops, but when we become rivers then we become oceans and we are united. Those men have witnessed the state-sanctioned oppression of women for years and understand that real change requires everyone to play their part. In every corner of the world, to varying degrees, women and girls still find themselves shamefully at high risk of experiencing gender-based violence. I am thankful to the cabinet secretary for today's debate and the minister who recognises the crucial role that men must play in their eradication during these global 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. The statistics that we have heard from the United Nations are chilling and they merit repeating more than one in three women will experience gender-based violence in their lifetime and more than five are killed every hour by someone in their own family. From the time of the beginning of this debate to the end of this debate, Presiding Officer, 10 women will have been killed. As a Pakistani woman, I am not blinkered to the issues within my own communities and I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the important work of charities here in Scotland and in Glasgow such as Amina, the Women's Muslim Research Centre, an award-winning organisation recognised by Black and Minority Ethnic and Muslim Communities for its pioneering and responsive approach to addressing issues and the needs of BME and Muslim women. Amina's focus recently has been on raising awareness around honour-based abuse perpetrated against a woman who is perceived to have brought shame on her family, perceived usually by men. Last year, during the 16 days of activism, Amina held a vigil to commemorate the lives of Black and Minority women and Muslim women who lost their lives as a result of this and I attended that vigil and I stood alongside men and imams and women as I read out the names of the women who had lost their lives. So change is happening but not fast enough as we know. Women like Anita Ginda from Glasgow, who was killed in 2003, just aged 22, Anita had refused to follow through on a forced marriage and fled to London to rebuild her life and marry the man that she loved, thinking that she had escaped. But Anita was brutally killed two years later, strangled in front of her 18-month-old son while she was eight and a half months pregnant. Stories like Anita's are horrific and uncomfortable to listen to but we must use this momentum built by these global campaigns to push for the behavioural shift required that will end systemic violence against women. It is as we have acknowledged the responsibility of men to address and control their behaviour, to be positive role models for younger generations and to challenge systems and attitudes around masculinity that normalise gender inequality. Nevertheless, we have a collective role to play and I join the ministers and the cabinet secretary in applauding Police Scotland's That Guy campaign, which brings these issues to the forefront and has helped to stimulate important conversations. I am also pleased that the Scottish Government remains committed to the continued evaluation and development of its equally safe strategy to eradicate violence against women with the £9.5 million that is being provided to 121 projects in just its first six months. Early intervention and preventative measures are a critical factor in the success of this strategy, which has been developed by rape crisis among others that my colleagues have mentioned, including the University of Glasgow in my constituency. It encourages secondary schools to take a holistic approach to preventing gender-based violence with student voices at the forefront. I welcome this approach, in preventative approach and education, in building and maintaining healthy relationships and the meaning of consent. It is also important that we, as MSPs, continue with our schools to engage with them and local authorities to encourage leadership in this area and lead by example in the way that we conduct ourselves. I note today that I think that we have around 70 men that have been elected to this Parliament, Presiding Officer, and I thank all the men that are currently in the chamber and the ones that were here previously. I finish with the words of former Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon. Violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable and never tolerable. If we want women and girls in Scotland to grow up with equal opportunities in a truly equal society, nobody can afford to sit on the sidelines, especially not the men. Thank you very much indeed, Mr Stewart. I now call Maggie Chapman to be followed by James Dawner for only six minutes. This debate is specifically about the role of men in challenging and eradicating violence against women and girls. I am sorry that some have chosen to weaponise it against already marginalised groups within society. The framing of this debate recognises that gender-based violence is primarily a problem of men being violent towards women, including trans women. The behaviour that has to change is that of those men, not of the women and girls who endure the consequences. It is not a problem of how women look, where they go, how they act or dress or what they say. Why are we here? Why haven't I and all the other women MSPs in this room gone home and left them to it? After all, men are good at challenging and eradicating, as a glance at colonial history will show us. Why not just let them fix it? That is a tempting thought that men have some sort of anti-misogyny, anti-patriarchy toolkit that they can whip out and, hey presto, there you go ladies, you won't be having any more problem with that part of the patriarchy. The problem for all of us is that they don't. The worst problem is that some of them think they do. There are three, we might call them tools, we might call them weapons, that men are within the patriarchy encouraged to use in what is presented as their fight against gender-based violence. The first is violence against women, and I don't mean just direct acts of individual physical force. These violence isn't only these acts, it's the millennia of assumptions and messages and patterns of behaviour that are embedded in the way we think and feel and act. They manifest in structural violence, in economic and emotional abuse, in coercive control. They justify a narrow and exclusionary perception of which women are worthy of protection and of pseudo-feminisms that keep those gates locked. They underlie the myth of binary determinism that men and women are in some ways that matter essentially different, that the best we can hope for is a heavily armed truce. The second useless tool is violence against other men. The noble knight sees the damsel in distress, slays her vial attacker, takes her home to a high tower. For perpetrators, according to this view, or other, they are alien, monsters and fiends, the subjects of fear and the objects of revenge. Those knights wore the favours of women to enter the joust, just so the label for the victims is pinned onto policies that are punitive, regressive and tragically counterproductive. Meanwhile, the realities of violence, the ones that don't fit the fairy story, are more and more difficult to identify and address. The third useless tool is violence against the earth and against the living beings, human and non-human, with whom we share it. A most perilous way to be a woman in the world today is as a protector of nature and of indigenous communities. It is no coincidence that every wall is justified by invocation of women and children and that in every wall women and children are raped. It is no accident that every wave of the anti-migrant rhetoric speaks of threat to women and that the women most likely to be attacked include migrants and refugees. The longest lasting effects of the fossil-fuelled so-called civilisation that was to liberate us all are the deeply gendered blows of climate injustice. If we throw away these weapons, those familiar forms of violence, the task ahead perhaps feels like a more daunting one, but those tools, as Audra Lorde told us, were never going to dismantle the master's house. We have better ones and they are not reserved for a single gender. Men don't have to choose between being perpetrators and being protectors, creeping behind us in the shadows or striding ahead with sword-bed. You can walk beside us as allies. There is so much to be done and we have to do it together. We can recognise that vulnerability is not a characteristic solely of being female but of being human. We can recognise that gender-based violence is not a matter of misogyny alone but powered by multiple forms of oppression and prejudice, including racism, homophobia, transphobia and the unspoken assumptions of privilege. We can remember the origin of the word intersectionality, that the intersection isn't a good place, a comfortable meadow to share our stories, but a noisy, polluted and perilous urban junction with juggernaughts bearing down from every direction. The task isn't to have a cosy chat, it's to stop that traffic and neither men nor women can do that alone. Together we can take apart the myths and behaviours of patriarchy, learning not only from our parents and siblings but from our children too, paying attention to the language that we use and the myths, histories and misconceptions that so often lie behind it. We can explore ethics of care, remembering that, though fighting fire with fire makes for a good song, a blanket does a better job of putting out the flames. We can model strategies of resistance rather than simple combat, recalling that, though this is an urgent task, it is a long-term one, undertaken not only for women and girls today but for the future generations whose wellbeing or trauma we have the capacity to affect. Gender-based violence wounds us all visibly or invisibly as communities, families and individuals, whatever our gender identity, but we can act to make change with care, with determination, with vision and solidarity, not because you are men, not because we are women, but because we all are human. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. In four months I'll be 70. I tell you this simply to explain the context in which I see this debate. I've lived through the times when hitting your wife was just one of those things, nobody's business but theirs. Not in my house to be fair, my dad was a gentle tea totaler, but it was all around us. She walked into a cupboard, et cetera. Woman had their roles, knew their place and knew not to question it. It improved some in the late 60s, more opportunities came about for women, however equality was not near to being a thing and certainly not on the ground. In the 80s, 90s, I managed football teams. Saturdays we'd stay for a drink, occasionally joining younger guys heading out for more drink later on. Now I'm no prude, but remember being shocked at how for many of these young guys girls were solely there for entertainment, verbally abusing them if they get a knockback and literally almost forcing themselves on them. I do remember wondering if that's what we were like when we were young. I truly hope not then and pray that now that was never the case. But turning to now, thankfully all of that is behind us. Woman can feel free to dress as she wishes, go where they wish and go with who they wish. I wish. Things you hope to see consign to the past are more prevalent now. The use of social media dax being peer pressured into them and secure young woman dazzled by new surroundings, new types of young men he socialised with at the first time. We have to remember that monsters too often come with friendly faces. One of the male species greatest contract was to persuade the female of the species that it's all your own fault. But you know what? That's not it. That's my fault. It's a fault of every guy who allows or makes to make fun of woman. It's a fault of a media designed by men, for men who far too often see woman strictly as a decoration or a plaything. It's a fault of every father who didn't explain to their sons that those young girls you mock will one day hold the same place in the heart of other young men than your mum does to you. And it's a fault of every man who believes that woman really were put on this earth simply as a decoration or their companion and plaything. I support today's motion. Violence against women and girls is utterly important. The impact on those affected is devastating and destructive across our society. I've seen its impact through the work of the heroes in the Daisy project and the Weave's Peer Support Group in Casimal. A wonderful group of women who have had to persevere through horrors I can't imagine and then find the strength to protect others. A welcome initiative such as the Don't Be That Guy campaign launched last year by Police Scotland already mentioned and echoed the comments of the Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham when he says it's time that we men reflected on our own behaviours and attitudes and those of our friends, family and colleagues towards women. Women are not responsible for the sexual offences committed against them. And whilst I welcome this and other initiatives, I'm keen to know what steps the Minister has taken to evaluate the impact of this initiative. The Scottish Government's universal periodic review and respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of everyone in Scotland published this October highlights the positive work of the government's equally safe strategy. A strategy that's helped tens of thousands and will provide invaluable support for over a hundred projects across a period 2021 to 2023. And this strategy brings me on to the one individual case that, as well as breaking my heart, made me see more clearly than at any other time the damage we men are capable of inflicting through our own selfish actions. We all know of the case of Emily Drewett and I won't be going over it again. And the incredible courage and determination her mother Fiona showed to try to ensure that no other young woman would ever be bereft of a safe place to go when she was scared, lost or unsure. For this family to create something so durable, so important from the tragedy of the loss of their beautiful Emily is an eternal monument to the strength and courage of this wonderful family. But this is also a good time to give the Scottish Government a well-deserved part in the back, because ever since the moment I introduced Fiona to Shirley-Anne Somerville, who was the appropriate Minister at the time, the commitment to make something good happen has never wavered. And with the Minister, Christina McKelvey, we have another passionate fighter for the cause of women and those who need our support. And I'm so pleased to see her leading this debate today. There's a lot of positive work being done. However, much is focused on rightly so on being reactive rather than proactive. And if we're to eradicate violence against women and children, it's important to not only recognise the role men play but to develop and implement policy that changes perceptions and promotes a wider cultural shift today's motion speaks in. Education is central to this. Some of equally safe work is focused on this on prevention and awareness raising through targeted sessions within schools, youth groups, universities and colleges. That is encouraging. However, an equally safe support will highlight our reluctance to allow visits into school to deliver awareness raising session. That is extremely worrying. We need to develop policy that mainstreams these initiatives that are sewn into the fabric of our learning from an early age and the Government has an opportunity to make this happen. The Minister will be aware that a new equally safe delivery plan is set to be drafted in the new year. I hopefully take this opportunity to take and board the comments made and explore how we can mainstream tackling this issue in our education system from an early age to hopefully prevent it from becoming one in the first place. Presiding Officer, to conclude, there's a lot of good work going on and it's making and will continue to make a difference. However, it's now time for the only people who can truly change things for the better to stand up. We men must accept that for far too long we've been the problem. Now it's time for us to become a major part of the solution. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Mr Dornan. I call Richard Hamilton to be followed by Paul O'Kane for around six minutes. Thank you Presiding Officer. The motion from the Government today is very worthy and I agree with every word of it. On Monday I visited Borders Women's Aid and I commend them for supporting hundreds of victims of domestic abuse across the Scottish borders and I hope that they will continue to receive funding beyond 2024 to continue their essential services. I hope that today's debate also encourages more men to prevent abuse and violence against women and girls, as mentioned by many, but especially our male colleagues across the chamber today. Today I want to focus my remarks on Pam Gozzle's amendments because, whilst the Government's words are commendable, it is action that is more important. The actions of the Government that they've taken so far in terms of the gender recognition reform bill, in my opinion, are not good enough. I thank the member for taking the intervention. It's just that she mentioned the fact that the Government's words, the motion which is before us, was agreed with all parties in order that we could speak as one. I don't quite understand what you mean. I'm going to keep going because I didn't actually hear what you said, so sorry about that. The Government has drafted a bill that is potentially damaging to women's safety. It has had ample opportunity to change the bill. It has received warning after warning about the possible consequences of this bill for women, yet it has not fixed the bill. That is the reason for Pam Gozzle's amendments today, to note the words of the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Al-Salam. It is a necessary amendment because the Government is not taking those words seriously enough. The Government is not even pausing the gender recognition reform bill to consider Mr Salam's words. I wrote to the First Minister about that on Monday. I asked that she suspends this legislation until we can hear from the UN expert. Mrs Salam has offered to provide expertise to the First Minister personally. She has said that it would be more than reasonable to pause the bill because active course court cases may have implications for this legislation. She's right that the Government must listen. It's vitally important that we make good laws with proper and full consideration of all the consequences. Rushing to pass legislation is rarely a good idea, but in this case, with fundamental rights at stake, it would be completely misguided to push these new laws through in haste. I'm struggling to see why the Government seem unwilling to listen to this particular expert. The Government typically puts a lot of faith in evidence from the UN, so we're only asking for consistency. It would be grossly unfair to women and girls with sincere and valid concerns about the legislation if the Government was to decide to cherry-pick the opinions that it relied on, whilst ignoring a UN adviser who has expertise in this very area. The member makes an important point about what other people like the UN rapporteur has said about the gender recognition bill. I would suggest that this debate today is not about that. However, she puts great stock in us listening to people. Will she listen to the women's organisations in gender just right Scotland, the Scottish Women's Rights Centre, the chief executive of Scottish Women's Aid, the director of Amherst International and the chief executive of Great Crisis Scotland, who have all written to Ms Asalam to tell her about the safeguards that are currently in place to protect women in the GRR bill? Rachel Hammett. I thank Christina McKelvie for her intervention. Of course, that has just been tweeted, whilst we were told to keep that in confidence in the committee until 10 December. Evidence from such as Rape Crisis Scotland has been considered already in committee. However, the evidence from the UN special rapporteur for violence against women and girls has not been considered. By the Scottish Government's own admission—no, I won't just now, because I am responding to Christina McKelvie's intervention—by the Scottish Government's own admission, the bill will expand the number of people who can apply for a GRC and the proposed self-id system makes it easiest for them to do so. The argument that the organisations that Christina McKelvie has just mentioned are flawed because the bill has not yet been enacted. They are talking about the last 15 years. How do we know that predatory men will not exploit anything that they can do to attack women? As I said, I am struggling to see why the Government takes stock of one particular UN adviser and not another. I really think that the First Minister should suspend the passage of the bill for a short time to make sure that all the evidence is fully considered. Will I get my time back? I can give you most of that time back. I am just struggling to wonder how you think that this fits with the topic of this debate on 16 days, which is a global initiative, and you have chosen to narrow it down to this. I think that it is absolutely speaking to the amendment from my colleague Pam Gozzle. Yesterday, the First Minister said that most men who commit violence against women do not feel the need to change gender to do that. Those who do my argument are that we should focus on them because they are men abusing a system to attack women. I think that it is absolutely about this, because even the First Minister agrees now that her reform risks allowing predatory men to gain access to women and girls' safe spaces. As I said, the First Minister should suspend the passage. I await a response to see what the Government has said so far, but it seems that the answer will be no. Since it appears that the bill will not be suspended, I will use my speech to bring the words of Ms Asylum to the chamber so that they are at least considered for a short time, but briefly by the Parliament. The on-going efforts to reform existing legislation by the Scottish Government do not sufficiently take into consideration the specific needs of women and girls in all diversity, particularly those at risk of male violence and those who have experienced male violence. Ms Asylum adds that she shares the concerns that such proposals would potentially open the door for violent males who identify men to abuse a process of acquiring a gender certificate and the rights that are associated with it. That presents potential risks to the safety of women and all their diversity, including women born female, trans women and gender non-conforming women. Ms Asylum also considers about the lack of clarity in the Government proposal, she says, and I quote again. The Scottish Government does not spell out how the Government will ensure a level of scrutiny for the applications made to acquire a GRC under the new proposal. It is not unreasonable to expect the Government to spell out what level of scrutiny will continue in the procedure or details important aspects of it, including the specific steps that the procedure entails and the conditions for refusing such applications in the law itself, or at least in the explanatory notes of the concerned legislation. Other Governments have adopted a self-identification procedure for the legal recognition of gender identity. Those words should cause the Government to at least pause and reconsider the sweeping legislation that it has to pass. I do not think I can take your intervention. I am very sorry. Would you like me to wind up? If you could begin winding up. In closing, Presiding Officer, let me appeal to the Government to go beyond the comforting phrases they used today. They must finally listen to women who are concerned about the gender reform bill, and the Parliament must hear evidence from experts at the UN about its potential consequences. I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to this vitally important debate, as we mark the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. I intend to focus my comment on the role that men must play in challenging and eradigating violence against women and girls. However, I was proud today that my colleague Pauline McNeill launched our party's ending violence against women and girls consultation paper. I commend that work and the work of people like Pauline McNeill and our party over many years on those issues to ensure that we can tackle those very pernicious and serious issues. Indeed, I heard labelled this week by the Queen Concert no less as a pandemic of heinous crimes that exists not only in our country but around the world. I think that her contribution in those 16 days is something that we would all recognise as being something that we all need to focus on tackling. Women have shown bravery, courage and strength over the years in calling out the horrific abuses of power and acts of sexual exploitation and violence that have been carried out by men who believe that their income, their status would protect them from being challenged, called out or held accountable for their behaviour. We should take a moment to thank those brave women today but also to remember all those who have been killed due to violence against women and girls, whom we have heard mentioned by colleagues across the chamber today. The primary burden of challenging dangerous toxic violent behaviour by men should be by men. Men have to take responsibility to change their behaviour. We must be part of the solution because misogynistic attitudes remain deep rooted in the foundations of our society. Those attitudes reveal themselves in small, subtle actions or they present in a more overt and aggressive manner through the derogatory comments on women's appearance, sexist humour, including sickening rape jokes. We know that in this day and age this exists online in a way that was never present in generations past. I thought that Pauline McNeill's contribution in that regard and the amendments that Scottish Labour has brought is absolutely crucial in beginning to deal with what happens in these online spaces. In recent years there have been particularly disturbing increases in incidents of women having their drinks spiked in our bars and clubs. Men must challenge their male relatives, their male friends and call out the behaviour when they see it, when they hear an inappropriate joke about a woman's appearance, when they see behaviour with women. That is problematic. The role that men play in this space is vitally important and that is why I support White Ribbon Scotland and the fantastic work that it does in getting men to challenge and hopefully begin the process of eradication of violence against women. I first encountered White Ribbon when I was a local councillor and I want to pay tribute today to local authorities across Scotland who play a vital role in those 16 days. I am particularly encouraging, as we have heard and referred in other contributions, encouraging our schools and our colleges and universities to educate people, particularly young men, about the role that they have to play. Again, we see a real variety of activity happening across our local authorities in those 16 days. My colleague in Inverclyde, Councillor Francesca Brennan, for example, is running a Reclaim the Streets Glow Up Walk in Greenock on 6 December and is encouraging particularly younger women and girls to come along and to take part in that and to stand up against the violence that is experienced too often on our streets. We need to focus, I think, on shifting attitudes and changing cultures and peer-to-peer action is crucial in shifting the dial and dismantling toxic masculinity. Men must challenge one another to be the best version of themselves by calling out and challenging, damaging, dangerous and corrosive attitudes against women. I think that I would like to touch on, Presiding Officer, the specific issue in sports due to the public platform and adulation, which accompanies success for many men in the sporting arena. Very quickly, athletes, footballers and ice hockey players can be heralded as idols, viewed by their younger supporters as role models who they would seek to emulate and look up to. I think that that raises the crucial issue about how sexual misconduct is addressed in sport, because it is clearly an important barrier that impedes many women and girls from participating in sport. I am glad that the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee is keen to look at this area, particularly the barriers that do exist in sport. I hope that we will be able to take a more focused look at the situation, particularly around how allegations of sexual misconduct are handled. We already know that, this year, there have been high-profile cases of professional sports clubs in Scotland, such as Wraith Rovers in football and the Glasgow clan in ice hockey, who rightly have faced significant criticism for signing men who have been guilty of rape and of sexual assault, leading to the backlash and reaction to the signings forcing both clubs to reverse their decisions to sign the men. In the case of Wraith Rovers, club directors and staff resigned and ultimately resulted in the women's team cutting ties with Wraith Rovers and being established as McDermid ladies in homage to the wonderful Val McDermid, who did so much to lead that campaign and to call out that situation. However, we will never achieve a systemic rebalancing of sports participation if we are not all willing to work to challenge toxic attitudes and atmospheres that persist in our stadiums and clubs across the country. Government and sports regulators need to play a more proactive role in ensuring that sport is a safe environment for women and girls. I think that there are many options that we could explore around mandatory training, education sessions, focusing on identifying misconduct and signposting to appropriate means to report such misconduct. In coming to our close, I reiterate that the responsibility is with men to tackle violence against women and girls. It is for men to take responsibility for our own actions and to be better, so I urge all men to speak up, challenge other men to do the same and to be the best version of ourselves, a strong ally in tackling violence against women and girls. Thank you. Violence against women and girls, including domestic abuse, is one of the most devastating and fundamental violations of human rights. The annual 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign was started over 30 years ago. We have made a lot of progress since then, but there is still much more to do. Men have a vital role to play in both challenging and eradicating such behaviour. As the UN declaration on the elimination of violence against women acknowledges, it is a product of entrenched inequalities and has been historically used to force women into subordinate positions. We should all be doing everything that we can to build a Scotland where women and girls live free of violence and abuse. Whether it is misogyny and sexism, sexual harassment and assault, domestic violence or female genital mutilation, violence against women and girls is deep-rooted and pervasive. A recent UN study found that 97 per cent of women aged between 18 to 24 in the UK have been sexually harassed, while other research has shown that 60 per cent of young women are scared to walk or use public transport. For too long, the emphasis has been on victim blaming and telling women what they should and shouldn't be doing if they want to avoid being verbally abused or physically attacked. Instead, we need to tackle the predominant root cause, the unacceptable behaviour of violent and abusive men. Police Scotland's campaign was excellent at focusing the attention on men's behaviour and stimulating conversations with the aim of reducing rape, serious sexual assault and harassment. Toxic masculinity, outdated gender stereotypes and male sexual entitlement were challenged by the campaign. If we were to tackle and eradicate gender-based violence, it is clear to me that we need behavioural, societal, cultural and systematic change. I welcome the minister's work on equally safe Scotland's strategy to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls, which sets out a vision of prevention, improving support services and strengthening the justice response for victims and perpetrators. In recent years, there have been several reforms to the justice system, including the introduction of the World Leading Domestic Abuse Act, which made psychological abuse and coercive control and behaviour a crime, and expanded powers given to police, prosecutors and the courts to tackle such crimes. Official statistics for 2021-22 released yesterday show that there has been a 1 per cent decrease in the number of domestic abuse incidents recorded by the police compared to the previous year. However, abusers manipulate and control their victims so that it can be difficult for victims to recognise what is happening and then to seek help. The most recent Scottish Crime and Justice Survey estimates that only one in five domestic abuse cases are reported to the police. To anyone who experiences violence, including coercive and controlling behaviours, please seek help, advice or support. In terms of tackling the cultural and social issues, it is only by prioritising prevention that we can end violence against women and girls. Equally safe at school recognises the important role of educational settings in preventing gender-based violence before it occurs. Through teaching children and young people about healthy relationships and consent, I particularly welcome the Mentors in Violence Prevention's peer education programme delivered in schools across Scotland. That gives young people the skills to recognise and challenge gender-based violence and sexist language and assumptions. By empowering younger generations with that knowledge, I believe that we will be taking great strides in terms of the goal to eradicate violence against women and girls. Economic inequality, including the gender pay gap, is a long-standing issue, yet another symptom of the historical discrimination and sexism targeted at women. That can often be helpful to coercive partners who can make women feel dependent financially. We see that continuing through the universal credit system where households receive one payment. As Scottish Women's Aid set out, this weakens women's access to an independent income and facilitates abuser's ability to gain financial control. More needs to be done to tackle issues in the workplace as well if we are serious about eradicating violence against women and girls. It is important that employers take their responsibility seriously, including by implementing equal pay for men and women, ensuring that women have wraparound support in case of gender-based harassment or abuse, and ensuring that there is education for male employees, inspired by equally safe. We all have a collective duty to unite and do everything we can to tackle gender-based violence, because it is one of the most devastating and fundamental violations of human rights. Perpetrators must be held to account, and women and children need to have access to suitable front-line services, dealing with violence and domestic abuse. I hope that we can build on the progress that is made today as we work to eradicate violence against women and girls. Let's create a strong and flourishing Scotland where all individuals are equally safe and respected. Thank you. We now move to closing speeches, and I call Pam Duncan-Glancy for around six minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Like my colleague Paul O'Kane, I will spend my time today focusing on the problem of men and structural and systemic inequality. For too long, violence against women and girls has been viewed as a women's issue with some men offering their support. The debate today has shown why it is men who must step up and that we all agree on that. From an early age, we are taught ways to protect ourselves from violent men. We are taught to be wary of strangers and to always watch our drink in a club. We text one another when we get home safely, with the real fear that we might not. We change our behaviour, our body language and the way we talk and dress to protect ourselves. We do that from a young age, because it starts at a young age, as my colleagues Pauline McNeill, Martin Whitfield and Collette Stevenson have set out in relation to schools. Like many harms, we must act early, robustly and comprehensively to end this. The burden of violence has been laying heavy on women's shoulders for far too long. This is simply unfair and unacceptable. Men must take responsibility and do better. The Government and this Parliament must also take responsibility to affect change in men's attitudes and behaviours, too. Scotland's equally safe strategy recognises that the root cause of violence against women and girls is inequality and highlights many primary prevention measures as key to tackling it. However, it is painfully clear that we are not there yet. A report from the UK Government Equality Office revealed that men's use of pornography, especially violent pornography, resulted in men viewing women as sex objects, an acceptance of sexual aggression towards women and an increased likelihood of men committing both verbal and physical acts of sexual aggression. Steps must be taken by the Scottish Government to challenge the harmful influence of violent pornography such as this, such as through the greater education on consent and healthy relationships that we have heard already in the chamber today, starting at school age and on tackling online and cyber crime, as the Labour amendment I am proud to support highlights today. Furthermore, according to the Scottish Social Attitude Survey 2014, only 58 per cent of people in Scotland believe that a woman who wears revealing clothing on a night out is not at all to blame for being raped. Nearly two in five Scots believe that rape results from men being unable to control their need for sex. Last week, I visited Glasgow and Clyde rape crisis and met with the fantastic women who run the projects there, as well as the incredible support to report team, who support women reporting gender-based violence throughout the criminal justice system. One issue discussed was the potential biases women can face going through the legal process, such as rape myths that may be believed by members of the jury and we've heard a bit about those today. What the survivor was wearing when the rape took place, her relationship with the accused and how much emotion she shows in the court can all influence juries. My colleague Martin Whitfield set this out on the role of men perfectly. Last year, the Lady Dorian review recommended a series of reforms for this system in relation to violence against women, including a specialist court with trauma-informed and pilot programmes, with the equivalent to what happens in England and Wales to communicate information to juries about common rape myths. I believe that we must consider this review seriously, including to look at ways to incorporate training across the criminal justice system in this respect. But measures must go further with preventative action to target gender inequality too. Primary prevention strategies are crucial to ending violence against women and girls, as my colleague Co-Cab Stewart has raised already. However, for all of these to be effective, they must be implemented across all policy and systems. Rona Mackay and others have spoke eloquently about the structural inequality that is in place too. That is a core objective of course of Equally Safe, but it has still not been used consistently in all policy making. Despite domestic abuse, as the most common reason for women's homelessness, it still accounts for 26 per cent, incidentally, of homeless applications unrising. Work from Christ of Scotland reveals that women experiencing domestic abuse are frequently let down by services, but opportunities for early intervention have been overlooked, and the Government's 2018 action plan on ending homelessness did not include gendered analysis. Last year, the Parliament unanimously passed the Domestic Abuse Act, which gives police and courts the power to remove abusers from the home and give social landlords greater control to transfer tenancies. However, 18 months on, and we haven't enacted the legislation, and some women are still being forced to present as homeless to escape. A key driving, I will. I thank Pam Duncan-Glancy for bringing up the act that she just spoke about, but hopefully she will be happy to hear that we now have an implementation group in place and we will be working towards implementing that piece of the act. I thank the minister for that intervention, and I am pleased to hear that. The key driving force behind continued gender inequality is poverty. I was pleased to hear the minister refer earlier to the importance of that in her opening remarks. Financial insecurity is a major risk factor for women experiencing gender-based violence, and research from organisations such as Engender shows that women are at heightened risk of destitution. We need to see primary prevention approaches within social security too. The single household payment, which has been mentioned in universal credit, reduces women's access to an independent income, making it hard for women to leave violent abusers. The Scottish Government has previously committed to providing individual payments of universal credit, but it has not yet been delivered. A failure to make good on that commitment will leave women at risk. The working group on improving housing outcomes for women and children recommended in 2020 that the Government introduced a dedicated fund to support women leaving abusive partners, and two years later it is not yet in place. Women experiencing gender-based violence cannot afford to wait much longer for this. I spoke earlier about how the burden of men's violence is placed on women and the ways in which we change our behaviour to protect ourselves. Our prime example, of course, is avoiding walking home alone or carrying keys, and we have heard this in the chamber today in our hands to protect ourselves from a potential attack. Radio Clyde's Light the Way campaign calls on Glasgow City Council to light parks at night so that we might not have to do this and to ensure safety by all. This campaign has already been under way for a year, but Glasgow's parks still are not lit. It is unlikely that lights will be added for another at least two years. The Scottish Government really needs to help to tell the SNP council in Glasgow to get a grip of this issue and take action soon. Presiding Officer, we will, on these benches, be voting for the Government and the Tory amendments today, and let me take a moment to say this. The Government motion, because as Martin Whitfield has pointed out, men have much work to do. The Tory amendment, because we note that the UN rapporteur has written to the Government. We also note the letter from women's organisations, which I can confirm was published on Amnesty International's website this afternoon, including Ingender, Just Rights Scotland, the Scottish Women's Rights Centre, Scottish Women's Aid, Amnesty International Scotland and Rape Crisis Scotland. The fight for equality and human rights for all, women and trans people included, is interconnected and interdependent on dismantling the structural inequality and discrimination for everyone. That should be our focus. We cannot and should not pick our equalities. In conclusion, the behaviours and attitudes of men must change, but so too must the entire patriarchal system. We must all in this chamber be laser-focused on that, the bold, preventative, urgent and long-lasting measures that cut across all policy areas to eradicate gender inequality once and for all in all we do. I agree with the Scottish Government motion, but I also Pam Gossel's amendment. I am glad to hear that Labour also supports that. Reem Alasalam is not merely to quote the First Minister, the person from the UN. She is a special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, and when she calls on the SNP Government to listen, Nicola Sturgeon should really do so. Women across Scotland have been frustrated and sometimes furious at the SNP Government's refusal to hear their concerns as Rachel Hamilton points out. Given that today's debate is really about what unites us and divides us, I see no reason why colleagues would not support Pam Gossel's important amendment. Brian Whittle's contribution was typically thoughtful, for Scotland's business world has changed radically. Some strangely old-fashioned views linger. Pauline McNeill makes some very important points about the dangerous rise in cybercrime. Beatrice Wishart spoke of the everyday casual learing and sexual comments directed at women. We can all agree with the aims of this year's 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, as Rona Mackay, Martin Whitfield and Paul O'Kane said, men do bear responsibility for their personal but also collective behaviour. Christine McKelvey, Cookabsture and others cite Police Scotland's guy campaign. No one here can disagree with its sentiment, but some might question Scottish Police's own record of misogyny, sexism and gender-based violence. Take Inspector Adam Carruthers, who used his status to commit sex attacks, even raping a crime victim in her own home. Investigations by some of his colleagues came to nothing to see here, apparently, when he was finally brought to justice. It emerged that he had targeted dozens of women during his 20-year career. Then there's Sergeant Kevin Story, who was jailed in 2014 for rapes and sexual assaults. His reign of terror somehow also spanned two decades, nothing to see here. Then there's Inspector Keith Farkerson, who was convicted of breach of the peace by sending a sleazy message to a young female colleague. He was demoted, constable, and then quietly reinstated to high rank. Again, nothing to see here. Farkerson is now serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife. It could be tempting to trot out the one bad apple cliché, but bad apples are too often get away with their crimes because they are protected by a system that always seems to prioritise protecting the organisation no matter the price. Some also say that these obscene cases could never happen today, but they can and they do. Last week, I joined a group of women in meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice for which I am grateful to him. They were former police officers Karen Harper, Jim McRae and another who cannot be named. Karen served proudly for 22 years until being bullied out of her job. It is scandalous that she is still trapped in process purgatory after seven costly and damaging years. Gemma was bullied by the Boys' Club and sexually assaulted by a colleague. It is scandalous that when she reported what was happening, it was covered up. We were joined by Annie Hurdman, who suffered years of violence at the hands of her police officer partner. It is scandalous that the justice system treated him with kid gloves and her with disrespect. Those women each had painful and looted stories to tell not just about the Boys' Club culture but something much more toxic and insidious, and that is the nothing to see here culture that permeates policing, the nothing to see here culture that protects wrongdoers and targets those like them who bravely speak out, this culture which pressures many good cops to stay silent for fear of repercussions. Those women do not disagree with that guy's message. Their problem is what they see as a gulf between Police Scotland's PR rhetoric and the reality of its management culture. The women handed Keith Brown a letter questioning whether the national force is able to change, I would like to quote from it. These are the same people who long presided over and defended the broken, costly and damaging system. That guy feels like a form of gaslighting, the phenomenon whereby abusers cause victims to doubt what happened to them. Thank you very much to Russell Finlay for taking intervention. In the spirit of Don't Be That Guy, will Russell Finlay join with me and Condemn and Jacob Rees-Mogg's pronouncements that rape victims should not have access to abortion services? In doing that, Condemn's calls on the UK Government to abolish the two child cap and the rape clause. If he does not, he does the noble cause of standing up for rape victims of disservice and perpetuates the systemic violence raised by Brian Whittle in his contribution. I thank the Minister for Intervention and I'm happy to condemn any form of male violence or male attitudes contrary to what we're talking about today. So what can be done, Presiding Officer, these women and many good cops, and it's important to state that it's very clearly the vast majority of good cops believe police regulation is not fit for purpose. The Government don't need to take their word for it. Lady Elish Angelini's watershed report into Scottish policing complaints handling investigations and misconduct said so too. She made 111 recommendations. We don't know exactly how many have been implemented because successive justice secretaries have refused our requests for an online action tracker, but it appears that most have not. Now the Angelini report is two years old and many will welcome the Scottish Government's publication today of its public consultation into her report. But much more importantly, people want to know what happens next. The women who met with the justice secretary are talking to each other. Many more women and men, police officers and members of the public are standing right behind them. Some have suffered long-term and life-changing medical problems, others have had their careers and faith in policing needlessly destroyed. Some have been required to sign non-disclosure agreements, gagging orders that protect wrongdoers and keep the public in the dark. Some have attempted suicide. Several officers have taken their own lives after being consumed by the complaints process, yet nobody seems to want to talk about this. I want to put on record my admiration for those whistleblowers, their bravery, their dignity and their determination. Those women and those fighting for women's rights against fashionable orthodoxy truly are the suffragettes of the 21st century. They are not going away, they will not be silenced and they are not interested in warm words. Presiding Officer, to conclude, when Gemma McCrae graduated from police college, her mother gifted her a pocket watch. It was inscribed, it was inscribed, patience and perseverance pays off. Little could she have known the meaning this would come to have. I should say that even if it is the case that we do not manage to achieve what we sought, which was a singular focus on the behaviour of men and the need for men to change and to tap into the consensus of violence against women and girls motions elsewhere, it has been nevertheless generally a good debate. During the last years' violence against women and girls debate at the same time, I spoke about a different pandemic affecting our society, a shadow pandemic of men's violence and an analogy of what I think Paul O'Kane also used. Much like Covid-19, it is extremely stubborn, it is a very difficult culture with wide-ranging societal impacts. As Martin Whitfield said, this is about men and the need for men to change is a very powerful speech from Martin Whitfield. Unlike Covid-19, the cause of violence against women and girls is clear. It is men who predominantly carry out such violence and its negative male attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate it. For that reason, men must lead in eradicating this from our lives. Men have to acknowledge the role that we play, as was mentioned by the minister, Christina McKelvie, and have the courage to speak up when we see negative attitudes and behaviours that ultimately lead to violence and abuse of women. Many members have mentioned Police Scotland's that guy campaign, and one is one that we should play close attention to. As to the issue of how we analyse and review the effectiveness of that campaign, it is still in its early months, but it is a campaign that would repay working at how effective it has been in changing culture. We have to do everything that we can within our power to contribute to and accelerate the societal and attitudinal shift that is required to make women and girls safer. Just before coming on to closing the debate, I would mention some of the highlights that I can't mention every member. Beatrice Wishart mentioned some horrendous examples in her experience. Rona Mackay talked in particular about the situation that migrant women feel themselves, which was appalling. Brian Whittle, I have to say, said a lot of things that I didn't agree with, but he had also mentioned the structural and economic inequality and the impacts that that can have on misogyny and the fact that it arrives from misogynistic attitudes in the first place. Bill Kidd talked about sex trafficking and commercial exploitation of sex. Martin Whitfield, as I said, had a very powerful speech. I say that because it was very explicitly directed at men, which is why I am standing here today, is to make sure that message gets across. Women have been saying this for generations. Somebody talked about millennia, I think that it was Maggie Chapman, but it is really up for men, and that is why we tried to focus on men in this debate. That will be the focus of how the Government votes later on. Cokab Shear also mentioned, as did Pan Gozel, about the particular issues that may be in black and minority ethnic communities as well in terms of domestic violence and violence against women. Maggie Chapman talked a lot about men. If it was a very good speech from Maggie Chapman, I will come back to that one shortly again. I think that James Dornan gave an excellent speech, and it is good to see him back in the chamber, albeit on the screen. I would concede, obviously, the role that the justice system can and does play is vital in this regard. The progress that we have made, in my view, should not be underestimated. We are prioritising domestic abuse cases at court. If you look at the preponderance of the cases that have gone through, notwithstanding the pressures of Covid and the backlogs, the vast preponderance of those are domestic abuse or sex crime-based cases that have been taken forward. Also, as has been mentioned, the ground-breaking legislation on domestic abuse reflects a better understanding, which I am sure, in time, will lead to increased confidence in reporting. I think that Pan Gozel and another member mentioned about the domestic abuse figures that came out. It is quite difficult—I think that everyone would acknowledge—to work out whether there is an increased confidence in reporting. If there is, as somebody mentioned quite rightly, four-fifths of domestic abuse cases are not reported and do not feature those figures, and that remains the challenge. However, some of the legislation that has come through this Parliament, especially in relation to commercial coercive control, represents real advances here in Scotland. Jackie Dunbar I thank the cabinet secretary for taking it. It is interesting that, in today's debate, football has not been mentioned at any point in today's debate, because it has a direct impact on the amount of domestic violence that happens, especially with the World Cup right now. So can I ask what the Government can do to help the teams and the clubs to support domestic violence education and prevention going forward? I think that it was mentioned, but perhaps Martin Whitfield mentioned it. It is a very good point. What we have to do is work with the football clubs. There have been some tremendous strides made in trying to deal with homophobia, sectarianism, but that is an issue that is not featured as much as it should have done, so I am happy to discuss that with the member about what could possibly be done. A direct alternative to custody, a whole family approach is designed to change and challenge men's behaviour. Those are things that are features of the Caledonia system, and we have to do more work in terms of wider data collection and relation to that. However, it is also imperative that we do more to ensure that women do not come into contact with the system in the first place. When women do need recourse to the system, it is important that we respond effectively, competently and with compassion and understanding. We know that there is more that we can do, and that is why the Minister for Community Safety will push on with the work that is started by our predecessor as chair of the Women's Justice Leadership Panel. That panel brings together expert women from all aspects of the justice system to discuss the experience and unique needs of women and what that means for criminal justice processes. The findings of that panel will be published in 2023. In our programme for government, we announced that we will legislate to progress the ambitions and priorities that are set out in the vision for justice, and that crucially involves delivering person-centred and trauma-informed practices. I know that those things can trip up the tongue quite easily, but they are extremely important. We have some big ticket items that we are looking at in terms of changes to the criminal justice system, perhaps the most profound change that we have seen in some years. However, if we can achieve a trauma-informed person-centred justice system, that will be the biggest possible change that we can make, not least in relation to the subject matter that we are discussing. Russell Finlay rightly commended the women that we met last week. I would also want to commend the women that I met yesterday who speak out survivors. We are trying to affect changes in the system. As was mentioned in terms of patients, they have been doing this for many years and I admire their tenacity, and I am happy to listen to them and to speak to them again. The criminal justice reform bill will abolish the not proven verdict in criminal trials in Scotland and take forward accompanying reforms. It will also make legislative changes building on the recommendations of Lady Dorian's review on improving the management of sexual offence cases, including among a range of proposals, statutory anonymity for complainers of sexual crimes. Earlier this year, Baroness Kennedy published her report on misogyny and the criminal law. That report made four specific recommendations to reform the criminal law to better address misogynistic harassment. They were a statutory sentencing aggravation of misogyny, an offence of stirring up hatred against women and girls, an offence of public misogynistic harassment, an offence of threatening or invoking the rape, sexual assault or disfigurement of women and girls. In setting the Government's legislative programme for 22-23 in September, the First Minister confirmed that we will consult on draft legislative provisions to give effect to those reforms proposed by Baroness Kennedy. That is part of what was called for by Paul McNeill in terms of a radical strategy. That will be not just radical, it will be a world first if we can manage to get through the reforms that we seek to try to bring into the law. Those are reforms that society needs and we are determined to deliver. Listening again to the contributions today, there is some consensus that we must strive and work together to end violence against women and girls. There is consensus that men must take responsibility for their actions and demonstrate a commitment to change. There is no overnight fix. The point about this is that the culmination of millennia of discrimination tells us that this will be a difficult issue to resolve. We have to be resolute and challenge violence against women and girls and the underlying inequality wherever it is found. The message really is for the men in this chamber and those listening elsewhere. We have a responsibility to change and we have a responsibility to help others to change as well. From my part, I am happy right now to take an intervention from and only from, or to be discriminatory, any man in the chamber who has never heard misogynistic or sexist comments in an all-male environment, or any man who has heard such comments and has always challenged it every time. I happen to be standing, but I would not be standing, because I have not done those things and most men have not done those things and perhaps why there is no intervention. That underlines the nature of the task that we now face. If we are serious about our vision of a society that is safe for a more equal for women and girls, we have to do more. A Scotland where women and men enjoy greater equality is a better Scotland for us all. Maggie Chapman mentioned the fact that what women are not looking for is some knight with a sword going ahead of women who are wreaking vengeance on men who have behaved badly or being protectors of women. What Maggie Chapman asked for, and she is right, is that men and women walk together on this journey. I would invite the Parliament to restate our collective ambitions in this area and I would invite all the men to make sure that they are not that guy. Thank you very much, cabinet secretary. That concludes the debate on recognising the vital role men must play in challenging and eradicating violence against women and girls. It is now time to move on to the next item of business. The next item of business is consideration of business motion 7018, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the parliamentary bureau, setting out a business programme. I call on George Adam to move the motion. No member has asked to speak against the motion. The question is that motion 7018 be agreed. Are we all agreed? That is agreed. The next item of business is consideration of business motion 7019, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the parliamentary bureau, on stage two timetable. Any member who wishes to speak against the motion should press the request-to-speak buttons now, and I call on George Adam to move the motion. Thank you. Once again, Presiding Officer, I've moved. Thank you. Nobody has, no member has asked to speak against the motion. Therefore, the question is that motion 7019 be agreed. Are we all agreed? That is therefore agreed. The next item of business is consideration of parliamentary bureau motions 7020, on designation of the lead committee. I ask George Adam on behalf of the parliamentary bureau to move the motion. Move, Presiding Officer. Thank you. The question on this motion will be put at decision time, to which conveniently we now come. There are four questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first question is that amendment 7002.2, in the name of Pam Goswell, which seeks to amend motion 7002, in the name of Christina McKelvie, on recognising the vital role men must play in challenging and eradicating violence against women and girls, be agreed. Are we all agreed? We are not agreed. Parliament is not agreed. Therefore, we will move to a vote. There will be a brief pause while members access the digital voting system.