Consultation Responses and Parliamentary Briefings

Engender Parliamentary Briefing: International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2021

Nov 24, 2021: Engender welcomes this debate to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2021 and the start of 16 Days of Activism. This is the 30th year of the international campaign recognising the global epidemic of violence against women, with 1 in 3 women worldwide subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner, non-partner or both, and the full continuum of violence perpetrated against women, including sexual harassment, violence in digital contexts, harmful practices, and sexual exploitation.

Date of publication: November 2021.

Engender response to the Scottish Parliament Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee consultation on Code of Conduct changes to give effect to the recommendations of the Joint Working Group on Sexual Harassment and Sexist Behaviour

Feb 1, 2021: Engender is pleased to respond to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee consultation on Code of Conduct changes to give effect to the recommendations of the Joint Working Group on Sexual Harassment and Sexist Behaviour. We continue to support Parliament taking any step open to it to ensure that robust accountability and support systems are in place to prevent sexual harassment, support women who report sexist and sexual harassment, and enable widespread and lasting culture change to realise women’s right to participate fully in political and public life on equal terms with men.

Date of publication: February 2021.

Engender response to the Scottish Government Consultation on the Digital Strategy for Scotland

Dec 17, 2020: Women face myriad barriers to digital access, including possessing fewer digital skills and less digital confidence than men and being more likely to have insufficient resources to afford digital equipment. Where women and girls do have digital access, experiences of online misogynistic harassment and abuse severely impact freedom to make full and equal use of online spaces.

Engender therefore welcomes this opportunity to respond to the Scottish Government Consultation on the Digital Strategy for Scotland. Our view is that digital inclusion can and should encompass action to address the gendered barriers and inequalities that exist for internet non-users and users alike. A strategy that mainstreams these gendered issues will contribute to the advancement of women’s equality and rights

Date of publication: December 2020.

Engender response to the Scottish Government Equally Safe consultation on challenging men’s demand for prostitution, working to reduce the harms associated with prostitution, and helping women to exit

Dec 10, 2020: We welcome the opportunity to respond to this consultation by Scottish Government and particularly its explicit recognition of prostitution as a gendered phenomenon, which is rooted in women’s inequality. In November 2020, the UN’s CEDAW Committee published a general recommendation relating to Article 6 of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In it, it recommends that states focus on the four root causes of sexual exploitation in women and girls: 1.Systematic gender-based discrimination; 2. Conflict and humanitarian emergencies; 3. Discrimination in migration and asylum regimes; and 4.Demand that fosters exploitation.
In line with Engender’s expertise, our response to this consultation focuses principally on the first of these root causes, which maps onto the primary prevention approach set out in Equally Safe.

Date of publication: December 2020.