News
Invitation to tender to provide legal advice & representation to the Scottish Women's Rights Centre
Rape Crisis Scotland in collaboration with the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic invites tenders to provide legal advice and representation for the Scottish Women's Rights Centre.
Deadline is noon on 31st May 2017.
For more information please download this document.
EHRC takes a stand against the #rapeclause
Rape Crisis Scotland welcomes the stand taken by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in defending the human rights and privacy rights of rape survivors.
In a letter sent today by the Commission to Damian Hinds MP, Minister for Employment at the Department of Work and Pensions, the Commission refers to ‘the invasive reporting requirements of intimate details’ and states:
‘We consider that there has been a failure to fully consider the impact of the implementation of this exemption, including the potentially traumatic process for having eligibility assessed and the risk of retraumatisation upon survivors of rape. This system would rely upon women who we know from statistics are overwhelmingly unlikely to report rape to police, reporting it to Department of Work and Pensions. The approach also does not account for children born of an ongoing abusive relationship, where women may not exercise power over decisions on how many children to have - and when.’
Outraged at the Rape Clause? Here’s what you can do
If you are as concerned as Rape Crisis Scotland is about the very real harm that the Rape Clause will do (see https://is.gd/pyamdh to find out what this really means for women and children), and want to do something about it, please consider writing to your elected representatives to ask them to do everything they can to put an end to this appalling piece of legislation.
By contacting your MP about this issue and asking her/him to represent your views, and the interests of survivors, you will be taking a valuable step towards rolling back an unworkable policy so inhumane that 78 psychologists have signed a letter stating that the #rapeclause 'will cause significant psychological harm' : https://is.gd/RtwTyZ .
New report on forensic provision for victims of sexual crime in Scotland
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland has today published its report on provision of services for forensic examinations across Scotland for victims of sexual crime.
This report says that services for rape victims across Scotland are unacceptable.
In response, the Scottish Government has announced the establishment of an implementation group, chaired by the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, to take forward improvements to the provision of health services for victims of rape and sexual assault.
Scottish women’s organisations make final appeal to House of Lords to scrap the 'rape clause'
Scottish Women’s Organisations are today calling on a little-known House of Lords committee to re-examine the so called ‘rape clause’ which limits tax credits and the child element of Universal Credit to two children unless a third or subsequent child was the result of rape.
In a letter to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee of the House of Lords, national women’s organisations Engender, Rape Crisis Scotland and Scottish Women’s Aid, have challenged the basis of the legislation itself, and the manner in which it was covertly passed using a procedure that avoided parliamentary debate.
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