Engender blog
CEDAW: How the UN Women’s Bill of Rights creates possibilities for women and girls in Scotland.
Engender members and other people who stay in touch with our work will know that we have been enabling organisations that care about women’s and girls’ equality to shadow the UN CEDAW process. The International Bill of Rights for Women is a key global human rights instrument for gender equality. The UK Government has just been examined by its dedicated UN CEDAW Committee to see how well the rights it provides for are being realised across the four nations of the UK.
We’ve written about the process, what happened during the examination, and annotated the concluding observations (or recommendations) that the Committee makes to UK Government. Here we’re going to summarise four of our reflections from the experience of working on CEDAW over the past two years.
Guest Post: 2016 - A new opportunity for Scotland
With the upcoming Scottish parliament elections Carla McCormack, from The Poverty Alliance, examines what devolution for Scotland could mean in terms of improved social security.
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5 Things You Should Know About The Scotland Bill
As the House of Lords begins to debate the Scotland Bill, this seems as good a moment as any to pause and provide an update on our thoughts about what happens next. The press coverage of the Lords’ reflections over the past couple of days has principally focused on the fiscal framework. The Lords is almost palpably frustrated at being asked to debate some of the detail around the transfer of powers without sorting out the money stuff first.
The Lords’ plan is to push the Bill back to the Commons and demand that the UK Government and Scottish Government sit down together and reach agreement on all things fiscal before the Bill can go any further.
Challenge Poverty Week: Women's employment support
This week is challenge poverty week, so it’s a great chance to look at a whole host of issues which affect women. One huge factor which pushes and keeps women in poverty is access to jobs, and the employment services which support women into work.
Engender calls for a progressive law for Scotland.
With the news that control over abortion law is due to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, Engender is calling for a progressive approach to abortion that reflects the fact that it a health issue that also underpins women’s autonomy and equality with men.
In July, Engender was one of several organisations to sign a joint statement urging caution over the devolution of abortion as part of the Scotland Bill. We are not opposed to the devolution of abortion to Scotland, but were concerned that the haste of the Smith process and the Scotland Bill itself may lead to a reduced timetable for discussing the content of any abortion law. We are disappointed that engagement with civil society, and the women’s sector, did not form part of the UK Government’s decision-making in seeking to amend the Scotland Bill.
Despite the flaws in the process, we are now keen to work with women’s and equalities organisations, trade unions and all political parties to ensure that abortion law in Scotland adequately reflect the needs and priorities of women in Scotland. Internationally, abortion law-making can be a highly politically charged process. We must take this opportunity to ensure that Scotland gets this right the first time, and that we create abortion laws with women’s dignity, autonomy, and wellbeing at their heart.
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Engender Briefing: Pension Credit Entitlement Changes
From 15 May 2019, new changes will be introduced which will require couples where one partner has reached state pension age and one has not (‘mixed age couples’) to claim universal credit (UC) instead of Pension Credit.
Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Condemnation of Misogyny, Racism, Harassment and Sexism
Engender welcomes this Scottish Parliament Debate on Condemnation of Misogyny, Racism, Harassment and Sexism and the opportunity to raise awareness of the ways in which women in Scotland’s inequality contributes to gender-based violence.
Gender Matters in Social Security: Individual Payments of Universal Credit
A paper calling on the Scottish Government to automatically split payments of Universal Credit between couples, once this power is devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
Gender Matters Manifesto: Twenty for 2016
This manifesto sets out measures that, with political will, can be taken over the next parliamentary term in pursuit of these goals.
Scottish NGO Briefing for UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
Joint briefing paper for the UN Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.
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