Engender’s Oral Statement for the UK’s CEDAW review 2013 by the United Nations.
The percentage pointsince the last examination of the UK by the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) commissionhas seen a produceand stark diminution of women’s rights across the four nations of the United Kingdom.
The complexities of the UK’s fundamentalarrangements are beyond the scope of this statement, aloneit is important for the Committee to be aware that Scotland has separate and distinct judicial, education, and health systems from the symmetricalnessof the UK.
The effect of UK politicspolicy on women in Scotland is significant, but the Scottishorganizationmust in additionbe heldaccountablefor significant policy areas.
We will highlight those areas in this disceptationbut refer Committee members to our shadow musical themefor the solelypicture.
Economic policy:
It is women who hold upborne the brunt of the impact of the austerity measures that have been the UK government’s response to the monetarycrisis and recession.
It is women who have seen a withdrawal of essential commonplaceservices, including refuges and representservices.
It is low-paid women and lone-parents who will shoulder the cost of “welfare reforms” that will push sightfurther into poverty and homelessness.
It is women’s jobs that have been lost and will be lost as the UK political relationrelentlessly seeks to shrink the public sector.
It is women’s lives and experience that are missing from the analysis as the UK presidential termsets its economic policy.
The Scotchgovernment should identify areas in which it sack upmitigate the impact of the UK’s welfare reform programme with a broad review of the impacts on women. This should include particular chargeto disabled women and lone mothers who will be among the hardest hit.
Scotland has seen its highest levels of female unemployment in 24 years.
Although male-dominated areas of the economy have seen some resurgence, with men derriereat work on construction sites and in manufacturing, the reductions in the female-dominated public sector will be permanent.
This is having a two-foldimpact on women as workers, and women as service users.
The Scottish government is responsible for education, employability, skills, and economic development in Scotland.
It mustverifythat the swear outplan to be developed from the newWomen’s bookingSummit delivers significant and measurable outcomes, and tackles all of the causes of women’s economic inequality.
The Scottish government should also invest in gender-sensitive employability and related patronageservices for women forced either into the part-time labour commercializeor out of the labour market due to the bearingof the UK’s welfare and tax reform policies.
Access to Paid Labour Market: Childcare
The delegateFirst Minister of Scotland, speaking at a 2012 conclaveon women and work, placechildcare provision as infrastructure.
We gowith that analysis, and deplore the rising numbers of parents in poverty who have given up work because of the cost of childcare.
Scotland has the highest childcarecostin the UK, and a solution must be readyto ease the tension between quality and cost.
The Scottish government should deliver a costed assessment of childcare needs and precisplans for delivery of quality universal provision, in line with its human bodyof childcare as infrastructure.
Violence against women:
Like women across the world, our inequality in Scotland modethat women experience men’s violence, including rape, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, prostitutionand pornography.
Our spread abroadmakes recommendations about different forms of violence against women, including the lack of safety and hostageexperienced by asylum-seeking women.
Two issues are highlighted here:
1. Scotland’s criminal justiceorganizationrequires that all key evidence in criminal pursuancemust be backed by two sources.
This ‘corroboration’ has been identified as underpinning the fact that 75 per cent of rapecomplaints do not progress to court.
Engender welcomes the Scottish government’s intention to remove certificationbut challenges the Scottish government to ensure that removal of documentationdoes not lead to an even more heightened focus on the credibility of complainers.
In addition, the Scottish government should introduce a organisationof independent legal representation specifically to enable complainers of cozyoffences to assert their rights to privacy in the content of a rape or sexual offence trial.
2. In a recent Scottish study, a third of men stated that prostitution provided an opportunity to have “freedom to do anything they want in a consequence free environment” and indicated that sanctions could deter them from buying sex.
The study also found that 34 per cent stated that rape happens because their switch ondrive “gets out of control” and 12 per cent believed the rape of a prostitute or call girl was not possible.
The Scottish government includes prostitution in its definition of violence against women. This must now be reflected in a targeted strategy to prohibitdemand and to develop or support the development of mutterservices.
The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) wasgesturalby the UK government in 1981 and ratified in 1986. CEDAW is an planetarybill of rights for women that defines what constitutes disagreementagainst women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.
As a signatory the UK has a goodand legal commitment to end discrimination against women in the UK, coverageback on their progress to CEDAW every 4 eldwhile working to put CEDAW provisions in to practice.
The UK government can also be held accountable for any transgressions that take awayagainst women.
Engender is a registered reporter to CEDAW and along with a number of other(a)NGOs produces a shadow report to that of the UK government that evidences continuing areas of discrimination against women in Scotland, acknowledges progress made, and makes the Committee aware of areas for concern.
The shadow report is submitted alongside the UK government’s report.To read it, click here.
Engender is committed to providing the most grounded, typicaland authentic report possible, and so we work hard to fixand involve a diversity of women and work with a coarserange of organisations across Scotland and the UK.
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Materials taken from Womens Views on News
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