SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL of SCOTLAND NORTH
PRESS RELEASE (Inverness Courier)
Inverness Soroptimists recently hosted the AGM and Regional Meeting of Scotland North at Lochardil Hotel. At this meeting, some 50 Soroptimists from Aberdeen, Crieff, Dundee, Easter Ross, Inverness, Perth and St. Andrews gathered together to discuss the many issues that affect our modern day life.
Marianne Simpson from Inverness chaired the meeting, her last, as President of the Region and will hand over the chain of office in November at the Soroptimist International Federation Conference in Harrogate. Pam Cairns from Dundee will become the seventy-ninth President of Scotland North Region.
In the afternoon, two inspirational speakers talked about issues that affect women and girls in Scotland.
Karen Cowan from Munroe & Noble is a specialist in Child and Family Law and spoke to us about Forced Marriage Protection Orders.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16 states that ‘Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouse’.
It is estimated that 8,000 women in the UK are forced into marriage each year. In November 2011, legislation came into force in Scotland to protect both men and women currently in or under threat of Forced Marriage. Under this law, a Forced Marriage Protection Order can be taken out to legally prevent anybody from being forced into marrying against their will, or to keep them from harm if a Forced Marriage has already taken place. However, there have been no prosecutions regarding Forced Marriage in Scotland since the law was passed.
Our second speaker was Janneke Lewis who is a Soroptimist and a lawyer specialising in criminal and family law especially in abuse cases. Janneke is part of Scotland’s campaign to make the buying of sex illegal and to decriminalise the selling of it. Prostitution is Violence Against Women. Nine out of Ten prostitutes want to exit and 70% of these women have been in ‘Care’. We were also told that Trafficking is getting worse not better and out of 236 women, one is trafficked.
A lot to think about. If you would like to know more about Soroptimist International go to our website: https://sigbi.org/
Janice Wilson – Region Press Officer