Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Bill — House of Lords, 2017-03-10
Topic: Civil Rights
Simon Denis Brown (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Gale, on bringing forward the Bill and introducing it so admirably and comprehensively. Yesterday afternoon when I inquired in the Whips’ Office how many were down to speak in this debate, I was somewhat surprised and really rather shocked to find that there were in fact only five—now there are six—and that they included not a single male Temporal Peer. So I put my name down, because heaven knows this is a worthy and indeed compelling cause that is deserving of support no less from men than from women We all know the appalling prevalence still today of violence towards women, both domestic and in wider society. I sat as a judge at various levels for 28 years and therefore came across perhaps more than my fair share of this violence, particularly in my earlier years as a High Court judge sitting at the Old Bailey and then around the country on circuit—murder, rapes and all those dreadful sorts of offences I have few boasts to my name by way of legal achievement, few jewels in my judicial crown, but I can and do boast of being the first judge in this jurisdiction, in I think 1990, to rule that a husband is not permitted in law to have intercourse with his wife quite simply whensoever he chooses—in short, that there is such an offence as marital rape. That decision was said at the time to fly in the face of centuries of established legal principle but in fact, happily, it was upheld by both the Court of Appeal and indeed the Appeal Committee in your Lordships’ House Reading the excellent Dr Whiteford’s speech towards the end of the debate in the other place on Third Reading, I was struck by this passage, which, if your Lordships will allow me, I will quote: "On reflection, it strikes me powerfully that Parliament has frequently been left playing catch-up on progress for women: from those who campaign for women’s suffrage for more than a century before it was achieved to those trade unionists fought for equal pay for women years before the Equal Pay Act 1970 came into force and the women who, in the 1970s, set up refuges for women fleeing domestic abuse at a time when there was absolutely no support from the state or the authorities for women experiencing violence or coercive control from an intimate partner—a time when rape within marriage was not even a crime. Every step of the way, it is citizens who have driven progressive change. Sisters have had to do it for themselves". —[Official Report, Commons, 24/2/17; col. 1334.] I thought it was time for a brother to enter the fray Of course I recognise, as Mr Nuttall and Mr Davies were at pains to emphasise in the debate in the other place, that there is all too much violence in society and in certain domestic contexts against men and boys too. The Istanbul convention and the Bill on their face appear to do nothing for them. But there can be no doubt, as the noble Baroness made plain in opening the debate, that it is women who suffer disproportionately. They suffer most from the hands of the opposite sex. There is absolutely no basis to suggest that advancing their cause, as the Bill proposes, will set back the cause of male victims. Quite the reverse: anything that raises the stakes, that raises the public’s awareness of and revulsion at violence generally in society, will redound to the advantage of all victims Of course I recognise that the Bill—and the Istanbul convention—does little of itself to alter the substantive law under which we seek to deter and control violence against women. To say it does nothing is something of an exaggeration: the convention requires that we broaden our extraterritorial jurisdiction so as to promote international co-operation in combating violence against women. That, indeed, is why the Bill was amended in the Commons: to recognise the need for some small further delay beyond even the years since we initially signed the convention. The delay is to identify precisely and then to satisfy that requirement for extraterritorial jurisdiction As Mr Nuttall himself said in the other place: "The purpose is to try to tie down the Government to doing something and to stop this matter from drifting on". —[Official Report, Commons, 24/2/17; col. 1337.] As has already been noted, the other place voted to pass the Bill by 138 votes to 1. Your Lordships will readily agree that it would be nothing short of disgraceful and deeply damaging to the reputation of this House if we do not now ensure that it secures safe and speedy passage at all stages through our House. I therefore wish it God’s speed to secure its early passage if not in this Session, certainly in the next.