At the beginning of November, over 30 MSYPs from across Scotland came together to debate and discuss different solutions for ending gender-based violence as part of a training session for SYP’s national campaign. Together, we reflected on two key questions:
- How can we tackle the root causes of gender-based violence and create a Scotland free from gender-based violence and misogynistic behaviour by 2049?
- How can we ensure that the approaches taken to end gender-based violence and misogynistic behaviour in Scotland are informed by and responsive to the views and experiences of people from different communities across Scotland?
The training, designed by the Campaign Planning Group made up of 9 MSYPs, was designed to upskill young people in public speaking and debate, whilst also building their knowledge on ending gender-based violence and violence against women and girls. Through this we hoped to provide MSYPs with the tools they needed to understand root causes of gender-based violence and how to tackle or respond to them at school or in their communities, as part of our campaigning efforts.
We kickstarted the debate with a recorded welcome speech from the Minister of Equalities, Kaukab Stewart, as she reflected on the importance of youth voices in this space and some of the critical work that the Scottish Government have been doing to address violence, such as through the ‘Equally Safe Strategy’ or the ‘Preventing and responding to gender based violence: a whole school framework’. The debate itself was co-chaired by Olivia Brown MSYP, Vice Chair of Scottish Youth Parliament, and Laura Thomson, the co-Director of Zero Tolerance, a charity that focuses on tackling gendered violence and inequality through primary prevention. Primary prevention is a long-term strategy to prevent violence from ever happening in the first place by challenging the attitudes, values and structures that allow it to happen and that enable inequality.
The environment was so supportive and collaborative, and we had many different perspectives on the same issue. The session was so insightful as we heard so many points of view that we hadn’t considered before. It became clear how much young people value an intersectional approach to gender-based violence, including cultural and religious sensitivities and how gender-based violence affects communities differently in Scotland, from urban to rural areas. We spoke about the importance of not demonizing boys and men and how to better include them in eliminating gender-based violence. We also spoke extensively about how school curricula could better address gender-based violence and the lack of positive role models for young boys. We concluded that primary prevention is one of the most important ways to address this violence.
Finally, as part of the debate, our Campaign Planning Group developed a motion – inspired by the motions presented at Scottish Parliament – to help frame the questions and set out exactly what we hoped to achieve. Our motion is:
“The Scottish Youth Parliament celebrates the successful launch of one of its campaigns, to End Gender Based Violence, and urges that a system wide and intersectional approach be taken to tackle gender based violence, and this would involve decision makers, the Scottish Parliament, youth groups, places of work and study, and people from different communities across Scotland; calls on the Scottish Parliament to take action now to ensure Scotland is free of Gender Based Violence and misogynistic behaviour by 2049, noting that current legislation and government action has not adequately tackled the issue”.
We plan to continue to use this framing as we move forward into the next phase of the campaign, all about calls to action and producing deliverables for decision-makers.
Following on from our debate, the Scottish Parliament are also hosting their own debate (on Thursday 5th December) in recognition of the ‘16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence’ and we have been invited to attend, to watch MSPs highlight the important work that young people have done and celebrate the successes of this past year, whilst still understanding how much further we have to go to make Scotland a place free from gender-based violence and misogyny.
