Policy Links

There are a number of national overlapping policies and strategies that seek to protect young people from violence, and to promote rights and equality.

Scotland is internationally recognised for having a national strategy (Equally Safe) dedicated to the prevention and eradication of all forms of violence against women and girls. Equally Safe is built on a considerable body of research and analysis: it has been shaped by the perspectives of survivors and victims of gender-based violence (GBV) and the agencies that support them. It is rooted in Scotland’s legal duties and international obligations to take action against violence against women and girls, and to uphold the rights of women, children and young people as set out by several international treaties and human rights obligations (such as the Human Rights Act 1998 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)).

Equally Safe encompasses four priority areas:

• Scottish society embraces equality and mutual respect, and rejects all forms of violence against women and girls
• Women and girls thrive as equal citizens – socially, culturally, economically and politically
• Interventions are early and effective, preventing violence and maximising the safety and wellbeing of women, children and young people
• Men desist from all forms of violence against women and girls, and perpetrators of such violence receive a robust and effective response

ESAS enshrines these priorities by taking a joined-up approach to all forms of GBV: putting gender equality at the centre of our approach to preventing it, and to interventions to tackle/address it when it occurs. (You can see what this approach looks like in more detail by looking at the Theory of Change).

A raft of other policy areas overlap, to broaden and strengthen Scotland’s approach to protecting children and young people from gender-based violence: