News/Blog

Scotland's new Domestic Abuse Bill is published

The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre welcomes the launch of Scotland’s new Domestic Abuse Bill.

At the moment, there is a significant gap between criminal justice responses to and the evidence and experience of women who are subject to domestic abuse. Without legislation that encompasses and criminalises the broad range of abusive tactics perpetrators use against victims, including psychological, emotional, financial, sexual and physical abuse, women are too often left vulnerable, unsupported by the legal framework and unable to access justice.

The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre promotes justice for women. Since our helpline launched, more than 55% of the calls we’ve taken have related to domestic abuse. What is clear from these calls is that is that where there is domestic abuse - which falls under criminal law in Scotland - there are often also issues that relate to the civil courts, specifically around child contact and divorce. Despite the many overlaps in this area, the gulf between civil and criminal issues remains a significant problem for women seeking justice.

For victim-survivors of domestic abuse to be able to access justice both the civil and criminal legal system must adequately reflect their experience, and police, prosecutors and the court system must have the tools they need to get on with their job. Given the interconnectedness of civil and criminal issues for victims of violence or abuse, is critical too that the right to special measures in criminal courts, such as giving evidence remotely or behind a screen, are extended to civil courts to help bridge the existing gulf.

We very much welcome the new domestic abuse law as an improvement within criminal law, in particular its focus on emotional abuse and coercive control, as one such tool with extraordinary potential to change the landscape around how we respond to domestic abuse in Scotland. We are also encouraged that this law will help challenge and change commonly held attitudes that domestic abuse is entirely physical violence, when we have known for many years that this just isn’t true.

We congratulate all those, in particular Scottish Women’s Aid, who have worked hard to achieve this milestone in Scottish legislation. We look forward to monitoring the impact of this development whilst working to promote justice for women across all areas of law.

Click here to read the full bill.