Commission report finds gaps in support for women who’ve experienced violence

Ahead of International Women’s Day on Friday 8 March, the Scottish Human Rights Commission is highlighting critical gaps in services for victim-survivors of violence against women and girls in Scotland.

The findings, in a report to the Council of Europe on the Istanbul Convention, show there is evidence that women’s experiences of accessing support are falling short of the national strategy and undermine Scotland's compliance with international human rights obligations in this area.

The Istanbul Convention is the human rights agreement to stop violence against women in Europe, ratified by the UK Government in 2023. This is the first treaty monitoring report from the Commission on this Convention. Read the full report on our website.

The Commission also submitted a second powerful supplementary report  containing the direct experiences of  survivors of violence against women who spoke with the Commission to inform its evidence to the Council of Europe. Read It’s Not A Story, It’s What Happened on our website.

An Easy Read version of the Commission’s submissions to the Council of Europe is also available on our website.

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Notes for Editors:

  1. The Scottish Human Rights Commission is an independent public body with a mandate to promote and protect human rights in Scotland. The Commission is also Scotland’s National Human Rights Institution, accredited as an A-status organisation within the international human rights system, which means it can monitor and report on the state of human rights in Scotland to the United Nations and Council of Europe.