On Thursday 15th September, Ruth Maguire MSP took
part in a debate on the recent announcement by the First
Minister that the Scottish Government will introduce legislation to create a
specific criminal offence of domestic abuse.
In a debate characterised by a strong sense
of cross-party consensus, Ruth began by commending the commitment of both the Scottish Government and the wider Parliament to improving how the justice system responds
to violence against women. The SNP MSP for Cunninghame South highlighted the importance of the new law - which will
criminalise psychological abuse, control and coercion - in creating clarity for
survivors and potential victims, and improving the ability of the police and justice
system to intervene.
‘Child contact
arrangement orders must put the best interests of the child or children first’
Ruth also used her speech to raise concerns
about issues such as court-mandated contact that remain to be addressed within the legal system, citing a harrowing recent report by Women’s Aid entitled 'Nineteen
Child Homicides'. The report tells the stories of the cases of nineteen children,
all intentionally killed by a parent who was also a known perpetrator of
domestic abuse. These killings were made possible through unsafe child contact
arrangements, over half of which were ordered through the courts.
Ruth quoted
the words of Lord Justice Wall, who, in 2006, stated that: ‘it is, in my view,
high time that the Family Justice System abandoned any reliance on the
proposition that a man can have a history of violence to the mother of his
children but, nonetheless, be a good father'.
‘Preventing and addressing violence against women demands a fundamental
change in societal attitudes. Women can’t do it on their own, if we could, we
would have sorted it out by now. We need everyone’
The speech concluded by stressing the need
for collective responsibility across society to tackle the wider issue of
gender inequality,
which underlies all forms of violence against women. Emphasising that this requires a fundamental change in attitudes, Ruth pointed
members to the fact that, until just a few decades ago, it was still accepted,
as it had been for centuries before, that a man had the right to rape his wife,
and urged them to take courage and heart from how much things can change.
