These norms are accepted in all countries of the world as part of human rights law. The international community is also equipped with bodies that can effectively monitor the implementation of women's rights. This is the case of the UN Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (the 'CEDAW Committee') and the recently-established Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on violence against women in conflict situations.
However, implementation is slow in many countries of the world. From a new 10-country study on women's health and domestic violence conducted by the World Health Organisation, it appears that between 15% and 71% of women reported physical or sexual violence by a husband or partner. Between 4% and 12% of women reported being physically abused during pregnancy. Every year, about 5,000 women are murdered by family members in the name of honour each year worldwide. Under these conditions, women's rights mechanisms remain under-exploited, and the possibility for individual victims to submit complaints to the UN, for example, is unknown to most women. These are key challenges for the EU human rights policy in third countries. And we must also lead by example in our EU internal policies.
On the eve of the International Women's Day, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Catherine Ashton said:
"International Women's Day provides a great opportunity for each one of us to reflect on our responsibility for working towards the eradication of gender inequality. This is very much true also in international relations, where all must play their part in reaching this common goal. Sustainable peace and security cannot be achieved without the full participation of women. Unfortunately, the persistence of constitutions and laws that blatantly discriminate against women still undermines the development of countries around the world. Violence against women has direct negative consequences on women's access to education, job and on to their participation in the public life. The impact of the marginalisation of women is not only at the expense of women, but runs counter to the overall empowerment of local communities. There remains a huge amount to do in all parts of the world."
"This is a global challenge of the highest order, to deliver gender equality and empower women, within Europe and beyond. That is why the EU will continue to put pro-active work in this field at the heart of our policies, both internal and external. Heads of EU Delegations throughout the world have just received clear instructions in this respect", she added.
Background
In December 1977, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by member countries, in accordance with their national traditions.
The EU has a long-standing commitment to promote gender equality; already in 1995, for instance, it played a leadership role at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Since then, the EU has sought actively to integrate the priorities and needs of women and men in all its key policies, notably in external assistance. Annually almost 35% of the European Commission's development aid is spent on projects that have a gender dimension. A forthcoming “EU Action Plan on Mainstreaming Gender Equality in Development” will aim at strengthening the coordination of activities in this field by EU institutions and individual EU Member States.
This gender mainstreaming strategy is reinforced by specific measures, programmes and projects to support the empowerment of women. The EU closely monitors women's rights and gender equality in third countries, including issues such as discriminatory laws and women's participation in public life. In 2008, the EU adopted new Guidelines on violence and discrimination against women and girls, which foresee regular reporting from EU Member States’ embassies and EU Delegations in third countries. As a way to implement these Guidelines, the EU urges third countries to enhance the fight against impunity and to support the protection and reintegration of victims, in close cooperation with civil society organisations and with defenders of women's rights. This includes protection against traditional practices that are harmful, such as female genital mutilation. The implementation of these Guidelines involves the work, as of today, of some 90 EU Delegations and EU Member States embassies in third countries.
This first-hand information forms the basis for constructive discussion with third countries' governments in the framework of human rights dialogues and consultations as well as in ad hoc conferences, such as the follow-up meetings of the 2006 Euromed ministerial conference on 'Strenghtening the Role of Women in Society'. Most recently, a meeting at the ministerial level was held in Marrakesh on 11-12 November 2009, in the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean.
The EU is an active actor in the international implementation of UN Security Council resolutions 1325 of 2000, 1820 of 2008, and the most recent 1888 and 1889 of 2009: these resolutions concern 1) the protection of women from violence in conflict and post-conflict situations and 2) women's participation in peacebuilding. The work of the Union in this area is guided by the “EU Comprehensive Approach for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820 on women, peace and security”.
This policy document, which was adopted by the Council of the EU on 8 December 2008, presents a vision of the role and obligations of a regional actor such as the EU in protecting women in conflict situations and in facilitating their pro-active role as peace-builders. The EU has been instrumental to ask the UN to organise, in October 2010, a ministerial review conference of resolution 1325. By then, the EU aims at achieving concrete results on the implementation of its policy on women, peace and security.
Election observation is another relevant tool to promote women’s role and participation in post-conflict or conflict-prone societies. Reports of EU electoral observation mission systematically include a comprehensive analysis of women’s participation as both voters and candidates as well as a set of recommendations.
Various financial instruments provide support to NGOs working in third countries on women’s rights. The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) includes the equal participation of men and women as a core goal of its Objective 2 on “strengthening the role of civil society in promoting human rights and democratic reform, in supporting the peaceful conciliation of group interests and consolidating political participation and representation”.
In future, the EIDHR should also provide opportunities to support NGOs activities to implement the EU Guidelines on violence and discrimination against women and girls. The thematic programme Investing in People also contains a separate financial envelope for funding NGOs actions in the area of promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Stability Instrument is currently used to integrate a gender perspective into EU activities in the area of conflict prevention, for instance through support to training, research and capacity building activities implemented by specialised NGOs.
The European Commission works closely with international inter-governmental organisations working for the protection of women’s rights. In particular, in April 2007, the European Commission jointly with UNIFEM and the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITC-ILO) - launched the EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace: this programme seeks to build capacity of relevant actors and improve accountability for gender equality in 12 focus countries: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Suriname and Ukraine.
However, implementation is slow in many countries of the world. From a new 10-country study on women's health and domestic violence conducted by the World Health Organisation, it appears that between 15% and 71% of women reported physical or sexual violence by a husband or partner. Between 4% and 12% of women reported being physically abused during pregnancy. Every year, about 5,000 women are murdered by family members in the name of honour each year worldwide. Under these conditions, women's rights mechanisms remain under-exploited, and the possibility for individual victims to submit complaints to the UN, for example, is unknown to most women. These are key challenges for the EU human rights policy in third countries. And we must also lead by example in our EU internal policies.
On the eve of the International Women's Day, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Catherine Ashton said:
"International Women's Day provides a great opportunity for each one of us to reflect on our responsibility for working towards the eradication of gender inequality. This is very much true also in international relations, where all must play their part in reaching this common goal. Sustainable peace and security cannot be achieved without the full participation of women. Unfortunately, the persistence of constitutions and laws that blatantly discriminate against women still undermines the development of countries around the world. Violence against women has direct negative consequences on women's access to education, job and on to their participation in the public life. The impact of the marginalisation of women is not only at the expense of women, but runs counter to the overall empowerment of local communities. There remains a huge amount to do in all parts of the world."
"This is a global challenge of the highest order, to deliver gender equality and empower women, within Europe and beyond. That is why the EU will continue to put pro-active work in this field at the heart of our policies, both internal and external. Heads of EU Delegations throughout the world have just received clear instructions in this respect", she added.
Background
In December 1977, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by member countries, in accordance with their national traditions.
The EU has a long-standing commitment to promote gender equality; already in 1995, for instance, it played a leadership role at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Since then, the EU has sought actively to integrate the priorities and needs of women and men in all its key policies, notably in external assistance. Annually almost 35% of the European Commission's development aid is spent on projects that have a gender dimension. A forthcoming “EU Action Plan on Mainstreaming Gender Equality in Development” will aim at strengthening the coordination of activities in this field by EU institutions and individual EU Member States.
This gender mainstreaming strategy is reinforced by specific measures, programmes and projects to support the empowerment of women. The EU closely monitors women's rights and gender equality in third countries, including issues such as discriminatory laws and women's participation in public life. In 2008, the EU adopted new Guidelines on violence and discrimination against women and girls, which foresee regular reporting from EU Member States’ embassies and EU Delegations in third countries. As a way to implement these Guidelines, the EU urges third countries to enhance the fight against impunity and to support the protection and reintegration of victims, in close cooperation with civil society organisations and with defenders of women's rights. This includes protection against traditional practices that are harmful, such as female genital mutilation. The implementation of these Guidelines involves the work, as of today, of some 90 EU Delegations and EU Member States embassies in third countries.
This first-hand information forms the basis for constructive discussion with third countries' governments in the framework of human rights dialogues and consultations as well as in ad hoc conferences, such as the follow-up meetings of the 2006 Euromed ministerial conference on 'Strenghtening the Role of Women in Society'. Most recently, a meeting at the ministerial level was held in Marrakesh on 11-12 November 2009, in the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean.
The EU is an active actor in the international implementation of UN Security Council resolutions 1325 of 2000, 1820 of 2008, and the most recent 1888 and 1889 of 2009: these resolutions concern 1) the protection of women from violence in conflict and post-conflict situations and 2) women's participation in peacebuilding. The work of the Union in this area is guided by the “EU Comprehensive Approach for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820 on women, peace and security”.
This policy document, which was adopted by the Council of the EU on 8 December 2008, presents a vision of the role and obligations of a regional actor such as the EU in protecting women in conflict situations and in facilitating their pro-active role as peace-builders. The EU has been instrumental to ask the UN to organise, in October 2010, a ministerial review conference of resolution 1325. By then, the EU aims at achieving concrete results on the implementation of its policy on women, peace and security.
Election observation is another relevant tool to promote women’s role and participation in post-conflict or conflict-prone societies. Reports of EU electoral observation mission systematically include a comprehensive analysis of women’s participation as both voters and candidates as well as a set of recommendations.
Various financial instruments provide support to NGOs working in third countries on women’s rights. The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) includes the equal participation of men and women as a core goal of its Objective 2 on “strengthening the role of civil society in promoting human rights and democratic reform, in supporting the peaceful conciliation of group interests and consolidating political participation and representation”.
In future, the EIDHR should also provide opportunities to support NGOs activities to implement the EU Guidelines on violence and discrimination against women and girls. The thematic programme Investing in People also contains a separate financial envelope for funding NGOs actions in the area of promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Stability Instrument is currently used to integrate a gender perspective into EU activities in the area of conflict prevention, for instance through support to training, research and capacity building activities implemented by specialised NGOs.
The European Commission works closely with international inter-governmental organisations working for the protection of women’s rights. In particular, in April 2007, the European Commission jointly with UNIFEM and the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITC-ILO) - launched the EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace: this programme seeks to build capacity of relevant actors and improve accountability for gender equality in 12 focus countries: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Suriname and Ukraine.
