Publication - Consultation paper
Equally Safe: draft delivery plan consultation
Consultation regarding Scottish Government's strategy to eradicate violence against women and girls.
Cross Cutting Actions
A human rights framework
Scotland's National Action Plan for Human Rights explicitly recognises violence against women and girls as a fundamental violation of human rights, and that we need to fulfil our international responsibilities. To do so, we will:
| What | When | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Support Eilidh Whiteford MP's Private Members Bill on ratification of the Istanbul Convention and press the UK Government to set out a clear timetable for ratification | Over 2017 | Scottish Government Wider civil society |
| Publish a report setting out what we are doing to implement the Istanbul Convention in Scotland | By end 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Continue to put human rights right at the heart of our approach to government, and work with civil society to safeguard both the Human Rights Act and the human rights and equality protections set out in EU law | Ongoing | Scottish Government |
| Align with Scotland's National Action Plan for Human Rights, and reflect concluding observations from international human rights treaty bodies and reviews undertaken by the UN Human Rights Council, as they are brought forward | Ongoing; examinations expected on UPR (2017), UNCRPD (2017), CEDAW (2019) and UNCAT (2019) | Scottish Government |
| Tackle violence against women and girls through our International Development work in sub-Saharan African countries through project work and by contributing to UN conventions to ensure that women are empowered politically, economically, socially and culturally | Recently published International Development Strategy aligned to UN Global Goals; Projects will report on a 6 monthly basis on progress to the Scottish Government | Scottish Government Wider civil society |
| Based on the principles of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 [2] , we will fund training and capacity building for at least fifty women annually from conflict-affected regions, ensuring they have the skills and confidence to maximise their contribution to building a safer world | Until March 2021 | Scottish Government |
All forms
The actions in the delivery plan contribute to preventing and eradicating all forms of violence against women and girls - nevertheless, it is necessary that we bring a focus to particular forms of violence. To do so, we will:
| What | When | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Hold an event comprising key stakeholder to look how we better tackle online hate and misogyny | By end 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Build the gendered analysis into the implementation of Scotland's first Human Trafficking Strategy, ensuring that interventions recognise the particular inequalities women who are trafficked experience | Ongoing | Scottish Government |
| Engage with stakeholders on the findings of research into the evidence as to the impact of criminalising the purchase of sex | Over 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Commission a mapping of exit routes, to inform guidance to public and third sector organisations on how to support women experiencing commercial sexual exploitation including prostitution | Summer 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Implement Scotland's National Action Plan on preventing and eradicating female genital mutilation | National Action Plan will run 2016 - 2020. Year one progress report will published in May 2017 | FGM National Action Plan Implementation Group [3] |
| Develop multi-agency national guidelines for tackling female genital mutilation | By end 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Engage with stakeholders on the recommendations of the research into Forced Marriage in Scotland published at the end of January 2017. | Commencing June 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Hold a forced marriage case study workshop for public and third sector organisations to raise awareness of good practice and challenges | June 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Improve the process of applying for a Forced Marriage Protection Order | By end 2017 | Scottish Government |
All women
Along with their gender, women and girls have other characteristics that increase their level of risk in experiencing violence, and we need to ensure that interventions recognise this. To do so, we will:
| What | When | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Include a requirement for lesbian, bisexual and transgender women and girls inclusion plans in our funded services, to ensure they can access support | Funding decisions by July 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Ask the disabled people's panel within Scotland's Disability Delivery Plan to help us identify steps to tackle violence against disabled women and girls | Initial consultations in autumn 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Ask black and minority ethnic representatives to help us to identify specific steps to tackle violence against BME women and girls | Minority ethnic women's network established and will organise a roundtable in 2017 focusing on gender based violence | Scottish Government |
| Ensure that our objectives in Equally Safe are aligned with our future approach to refugee integration in Scotland | Refreshed New Scots Strategy due end 2017 | Scottish Government |
All children
The definition of violence against women and girls we have adopted explicitly includes children of all genders as subject to harm through violence. To better support children, we will:
| What | When | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Take forward a programme of action to ensure that vulnerable children (including those who have experienced domestic abuse) get access to the right help at the right time | Programme announced in February 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Continue to implement the National Action Plan to Prevent and Tackle Child Sexual Exploitation, published in March 2016 | Ongoing; first report on progress published 17 March 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Publish a refreshed action plan on child internet safety to ensure appropriate training, support and information is in place for professionals, children, young people and their families | Spring 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Ensure the Domestic Abuse Bill effectively acknowledges the impact that domestic abuse can have on children through the operation of a statutory aggravation to the new offence of domestic abuse | 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Consult on the terms of the child cruelty and neglect offence contained in the Children and Young Persons Act 1937, including whether the offence requires to be modernised to include emotional and psychological abuse and archaic language removed | Summer 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Develop understanding of the experience of domestic abuse by children in poverty, using this to inform the approach to tackling child poverty | Commence following expected passage of Child Poverty Bill in late 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Ensure that children's interests are better reflected in the justice system and that their voice is heard | Ongoing | Scottish Government Justice agencies |
| Consider the application of lessons from various international examples of the 'Barnahus' concept for child victims and how these could potentially apply within the Scottish context | 2017 | Scottish Government CHILDREN 1st |
Accountability
We have already committed to assessing progress so we can demonstrate a reduction over time in all forms of violence against women and girls. To help us do this, we will:
| What | When | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Embed the Sustainable Development Goals - including Goal 5, which calls for gender equality and the true empowerment of women and girls - in Scotland Performs | Publication in second half of 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Publish a Gender Equality Index to track progress of indicators relevant to women's equality | Summer 2017 | Scottish Government |
| Finalise an outcomes framework for Equally Safe, with identified indicators to demonstrate progress and a pathway to strengthen data capture and identify data gaps | By summer 2017 | Scottish Government Improvement Service |
| Develop and support a pilot performance management framework with supporting tools, and following publication support local violence against women partnerships to use these | Over summer 2017 | Scottish Government Improvement Service |
| Published a refreshed Equality Outcome on tackling violence against women and girls | Spring 2017 | Scottish Government |
Participation
We have committed to ensuring that women, children and young people have a greater opportunity to shape our approach. To help us do this, we will:
| What | When | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Support a pilot programme of participation with affected groups of women, children and young people | Over 2017 | Scottish Government Rape Crisis Scotland CYP Stakeholders |
| Capture the learning from participation approaches to inform future work in this area | By end 2017 | Scottish Government |
Contact
Email: Leonie Stone
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