It’s not just women who need to fight to end domestic violence, it’s up to men like me too

Preventing and ending violence against women is not a problem for women to face alone. As men, it is our responsibility to ensure that they don’t have to deal with the horrors our gender too frequently inflicts on them.

The White Ribbon All Party Parliamentary Group, which I co-chair, stresses the positive role that men can play by helping to challenge the sexist attitudes and behaviours that far too many men still hold. This is crucially important because if we can eliminate sexist behaviour at an early age and engender a deeper sense of respect, we can help prevent some of them from turning to more devastating gender-based violence when they grow up. But there’s something else we could all do too – campaign for the ratification of the Istanbul Convention (IC), one of the most important pieces of legislation for the protection of women and girls in British political history.

It’s been just under a year since I first wrote to the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, urging her to ratify the convention, which would commit the Government to take all necessary steps to prevent violence, protect women experiencing violence and prosecute perpetrators. This letter, which was co-signed by more than 10 organisations, urged the Government to introduce a series of preventative polices which would allow us to take effective action against the violence that 1 in 4 women face in their lifetimes. Unfortunately, we received a standard response to that letter and we’ve continued to receive disappointing replies from the Government after every call that we’ve made to them on this issue. Last week, more than 60 MPs signed an open letter to the Prime Minister pleading with her to fast-track the convention as a matter of increasing urgency. Still, we are met with nothing but silence.

I was therefore delighted when my SNP colleague Eilidh Whiteford MP decided to use her all too rare opportunity to put forward a Private Members’ Bill this Friday (16 December) to introduce legislation to timetable the advancement of the convention David Cameron committed to seeing through in 2012. If the bill is finally passed, this would mean that by law the Government would have to ensure the adequate funding of women’s services, fast-track a stronger, survivor-focused prosecution of perpetrators and an implement a targeted strategy prevent of rape and domestic violence from happening in the first place. We need 100 MPs through the doors to vote on it on a day when many would usually be celebrating the last day in the Parliamentary calendar before the Christmas break back home in their constituencies.

Like every other decent-minded politician and man, I want to live in a world where women don’t have to live with the fear of violence hanging over them. It sickens me beyond belief that too many women live in a house where violence is the norm. This reality is what has motivated me in helping to end domestic, sexual and psychological abuse that too many women still experience. As parliamentarians – and as citizens – anything that we can do to end this violence must be done, and the Government has a moral responsibility to protect the overwhelming number of vulnerable people in its society by ratifying the Istanbul Convention. Therefore, I urge MPs across all parties to turn up to the debate on Friday, cast their votes, and play their part in changing history for women for the better. For the sake of your mothers, your sisters, your daughters and wives, if you do nothing else before the year is out, let it be this.