Chamber and committees

You have not mentioned the NHS and you have not mentioned GPs.

Back to you, convener.

It just so happens. Can I ask you, minister—

There have been six cases recorded and not a single prosecution—not one—in five years. Can you explain why?

I have a lot to get through—if I have time at the end, I will.

For the past two weeks, the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee has taken evidence on the proposed learning disabilities, autism and neurodivergence bill—another piece of legislation that has been kicked into the long grass by Scottish ministers. The committee heard evidence that up to 90 per cent of women with learning disabilities have been sexually abused, but Maree Todd could only say that she shares the

“disappointment in the lack of progress.”—[Official Report, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, 3 December 2024; c 19.]

Today, the committee took evidence on the Female Genital Mutilation (Protection and Guidance) (Scotland) Act 2020. Four years after the act was passed, it is still not fully in force. Vulnerable women and girls are being failed, but at this morning’s session, the Minister for Parliamentary Business had the nerve to say that “we are where we are”.

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was progressed at pace, as was the bill that became the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. However, the 2020 FGM act, the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 and the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 have still not been fully implemented.

Those are more broken promises—

No.

No.

Meanwhile, the SNP rushed through the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill before Christmas two years ago, with “feminist to her fingertips” Nicola Sturgeon dismissing women’s valid concerns. More valuable resources were wasted trying to defend the flawed legislation in the Supreme Court.

Last month, lawyers acting for the SNP Government were on their feet again in the Supreme Court. This time, they were arguing that men could get pregnant, become lesbians and access women-only spaces. Even though John Swinney said that he disagreed, and even though Kaukab Stewart recognised last week that single-sex spaces are a right under the Equality Act 2010, costly King’s counsels argued the opposite in the Supreme Court literally days later.

In a thoroughly depressing development, the Scottish Government’s case was supported by Amnesty International, which argued against the importance of biological sex, despite its being used to deny women their fundamental rights in countries such as Afghanistan.

The balance of rights seems to have tipped so far against women and girls under the SNP that the Scottish Government believes not only that sex can be appropriated but that the very definition of a woman is contentious ground.

All of that shows that the SNP Government has struggled to understand the parameters of devolved competence. It has failed to manage the complex balance of rights between competing interests, and it has lacked leadership on the serious challenges that we face in Scotland.

Too often, the SNP says one thing but does another. The Scottish Government has many of the levers that it needs to protect and promote the rights of the Scottish people, even without new legislation. We are calling for urgent, meaningful and commonsense action now. The SNP needs to stop focusing on fringe issues and find ways to address the very real challenges that impact Scots every day.

I move, as an amendment to motion S6M-15782, to leave out from “that this year” to end and insert:

“the important work of bodies, organisations and charities in Scotland, across the UK and around the world that act to uphold human rights and protect those who are vulnerable; acknowledges the steps to advance rights in Scotland, including the commencement of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024; notes, however, concerns among civil society regarding the Scottish Government’s engagement over the draft Disability Equality Plan, as well as other measures to improve and progress human rights in Scotland, which, it believes, the Scottish Government has not delivered; highlights a report from the Scottish Human Rights Commission published in November 2024, which emphasises the ‘significant’ human rights challenges for people in rural and remote areas of Scotland; recognises that a number of women’s groups continue to have serious concerns about the Scottish Government’s approach to the rights and safety of women and children; calls on the Scottish Government to work in a careful and considered way with public bodies and the third sector, in light of recent criticism over the way that it has engaged on policy matters, and urges it to take urgent and meaningful action on issues affecting human rights, including Scotland’s national housing emergency and access to vital public services such as health and social care.”

No.

Those are more broken promises, and more people who feel left behind or ignored.

There is also the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. The social care sector is on its knees, we have record levels of delayed discharge and self-directed support is not fit for purpose. Scores of people with complex care needs are languishing in hospital settings because of delayed discharge, and they are crying out for care packages. The coming home implementation programme has clearly failed.

What is the SNP’s solution? It is to spend millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on flawed and unworkable legislation, which has cost the support of everyone—sorry, which has lost the support of everyone—[Laughter.] It has lost the support of everyone except SNP ministers. I do not think that that is much to laugh about.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Human Rights Commission has raised significant concerns about people’s rights and rural proofing. Its report, “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Highlands and Islands”, which was published last month, found that, in the Highlands and Islands, the minimum core obligation in relation to the right to food and housing was not being met, while the obligation in relation to the right to health was being only partially met.

In my region, NHS Grampian has the lowest bed base in Scotland. That means that patients in the north of Scotland are suffering the pain and indignity of corridor care and ambulance stacking. That is not just a crisis in health and social care; it is a human rights crisis.

After trying to invoke a constitutional grievance with the UK Government over the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill, it took the SNP 709 days to remedy the legislation. The SNP played constitutional games with the rights of children.

Meanwhile, the SNP rushed—

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer—again, I apologise for being late to the chamber.

On this human rights day, we are reminded of the importance of protecting everyone’s human rights. However, multiple failures by the Scottish National Party Government have seen the human rights of people across Scotland placed in jeopardy. The “State of the Nation: Civil and Political Rights in Scotland” report from the Scottish Human Rights Commission, which was published today, has identified

“a vast array of challenges for human rights”

in Scotland, and

“failures that have been unchanged for many years.”

In an eviscerating letter to the First Minister back in September, more than 100 third sector organisations pointed to the

“diminishing priority given to human rights”

by SNP ministers. The letter followed the Scottish Government’s decision to renege on the proposed human rights bill. Stakeholders had been working on the project for years, but the SNP marched them up the legislative hill and then marched them down again. Close to £300,000 of taxpayers’ money has already been spent on that so-called landmark legislation.

As we mark the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, the scourge of violence against women and girls continues to stain society in Scotland, in the United Kingdom and across the world.

The figures are spine-chilling. In Scotland last year, 1,721 young women and girls aged 18 or under reported domestic abuse and 405 girls under the age of 16 reported rape or attempted rape. Up to 90 per cent of women and girls with learning disabilities have been sexually abused. That is just the tip of the iceberg. It is an outrage. It is utterly shameful, and it must end. However, public outcry is not enough.

The criminal justice system has a vital role to play in tackling that violence but, as Fiona Mackenzie from the “We can’t consent to this” campaign has emphasised, we cannot prosecute our way out of that crisis. We must tackle the root causes, as well as the conviction rate.

Karen Ingala Smith, who spearheaded the counting dead women campaign, argues in her book “Defending Women’s Spaces” that

“Men’s violence against women is more than a number of individual acts perpetrated by individual men … it is a social and political issue.”

She is right, of course. It is about sex inequality and challenging attitudes and behaviours that enable men’s violence against women. It is about power and control.

Misogyny has loomed large over the lives of women and girls since the dawn of time, but in the era of TikTok and toxic influencers such as Andrew Tate, misogyny has become radicalised and amplified. Pornography—freely available and readily accessible—glorifies the objectification and subjugation of women. It has become mainstream online entertainment and it normalises sexual violence. All that has further devalued and commoditised women and girls, and our focus must be on challenging and dismantling those attitudes.

Last week, I lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament—which I am pleased has received cross-party support—to pay tribute to Gisèle Pelicot. The words of that remarkable woman—

“it’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them”—

resonated loudly throughout the world.

However, where are the men? That question was posed at an event that I co-sponsored with Claire Baker last night. Hosted by Beira’s Place, it discussed the dangerous and destructive practice of non-fatal strangulation. With the exception of Russell Findlay, the room was full of women. It was exactly the same at Pam Gosal’s event with For Women Scotland the previous day, which touched on the prevalence of pornography in schools. This is not about middle-class women of a certain age—although I fall into that category—but about women and girls of every age and every imaginable demographic. It is about the beliefs, attitudes and actions of men—and how can those ever change if men in positions of influence do not show up?

I agree with the Scottish Government that education is key. There is a lot that Police Scotland has got wrong when it comes to women, but the “Don’t be that guy” campaign was powerful. It challenged the behaviour of men, not women, who for too long have been forced to modify what they wear and what they do to protect their safety. That kind of messaging must be repeated and reinforced as much as possible, if it is to successfully unpick the impact of misogyny and pornography.

Earlier this week, Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, described the

“onslaught on women-specific language”

as a

“new form of #ViolenceAgainstWomen”.

Today, this is a consensual debate, but it is a debate that is taking place just days after the Supreme Court met to decide what counts as a woman. That ambiguity was created by the Scottish National Party Government. If our own Government cannot define a woman, how can it plausibly secure our safety?

When vulnerable women and girls cannot rely on single-sex spaces to support them after experiencing violence and sexual abuse because of that ambiguity, where do they turn? Where do they go? When a member of the Scottish Parliament is wrongly accused of being transphobic for standing up for women’s rights, as I was yesterday by Patrick Harvie, what signal does that kind of bullying send not just to women and girls but to men and boys? It is shameful.