The Church of Scotland is urging congregations across the country to sign up to a charter and publicly pledge support for eradicating violence against women, girls and children.

The new charter, which states that all gender-based violence contravenes Christian teachings, can be downloaded from the Church of Scotland website and displayed in local churches.

The charter is one of a series of new resources produced by the Church of Scotland's Violence Against Women task group, Integrity, which were launched during the UN-backed 16 days of Activism against Gender Based Violence in November. Church of Cairo, StARS was one of the irst organisations in Egypt dedicated to improving the quality of life of refugees and vulnerable migrants.

John Sharp, Director for the Boys' Brigade in Scotland, said: “I would like to congratulate all those members who have raised money to support St Andrew’s Refugee Service, especially from the companies who have received awards this evening.

Kay Keith, Integrity’s convener, said : “We are required as Christians to ensure that all God's people should enjoy life in all its fullness and yet we deny that fulness of life to women who are subject to violence in so many forms: human traicking; sexual violence; physical, emotional and spiritual abuse at the hands of those who are charged to love not control.

“Our task as the Church of Scotland’s Violence Against Women Task Group is to raise awareness in our churches’ councils and congregations about the facts of this issue and to equip them with resources which allow them to explore how they can respond to these and support survivors within their churches and communities.

“We are excited to launch a set of new resources during the 16 Days of Activism which help people within the church to investigate their own levels of understanding and capacity to respond to violence against women, girls and children when they meet it where they are.”

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