University of Buckingham lecturers take part in Women's Parliament

A University of Buckingham lecturer organised a Women’s Parliament for International Women’s Day last week, with staff and students from the university taking part.

The session, which took place in the Guildhall Council Chamber in Cambridge, raised awareness about the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which the UN has adopted.

Dr Scutt, a Senior Fellow in the University of Buckingham's Law School, is president of CEDAW, which is pressing for a Women's Bill of Rights to be incorporated into UK law.

Issues of inequality in all aspects of women's lives were debated at the forum, which was live streamed.

Dr Scutt said: "In 1970, the Equal Pay Act was passed – yet women still do not have equal pay.

"The 2003 Sexual Offences Act was supposed to ‘fix’ rape law, with clarity about what constitutes the crime, including definitions of ‘consent’.

"Yet women and girls continue to be raped almost with impunity."

Speakers included renowned family law specialist Shabina Begum, who talked about issues including forced marriage, and University of Buckingham lecturer Natalie Turney, clinical legal education manager of the Law School Julie O' Shea and law students.