Brussels, 16/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 16 March, the European Parliament marked International Women's Day 2010 with a seminar that brought together MEPs, national MPs and experts to debate the issue of how to tackle domestic violence. Parliament also launched the “Violence against women: we can stop it!” campaign, thanks largely to the excellent cooperation between the European Commission and the European Parliament and thanks, too, to the fact the Spanish Presidency of the EU had made this one of the main concerns of its term of office.
Describing reality. Speaking to press, Eva-Britt Svensson (GUE/NGL, Sweden), who chairs the women's rights and gender equality committee, said it was essential to spell out the reality faced by many women who live in fear of abuse and to say “we can stop this”. “It needs to be done and it has to be done,” she said, referring to the report adopted by the European Parliament in February which sets out measures to end violence against women (see EUROPE 10076). “These are the first steps towards ending gender-based violence,” she stated.
Changing ideology, attitudes and policy. Ines Alberdi, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) said that there was much still to be done. There had to be a change of ideology and attitude (including transforming relations between men and women and defending the right of every women and girl to live free from violence and fear), but there had also to be a political change, with new laws that contain implementation plans, with behavioural changes, training for police forces, measures to punish those guilty of gender violence and ending the impunity of the perpetrators of violence against women. “Punishing violence against women is the most basic measure to stop such violence. It is the laws which punish this violence as a crime,” Alberdi told press.
Need for action. Speaking at the opening of the seminar, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek stressed the need for action. “What is different today from the past is that we are talking about it, we are trying to overcome the fears and to offer help so that the feeling of shame among women does not increase,” he said. Noting that “Europol does not deal with these problems”, Buzek said, “We are talking about the most acute problems”, such as, for example, women not being treated the same as men in the workplace, “which is more difficult for them in these times of unemployment”. Or again, women could benefit from special budget regimes, such as, for instance, reducing taxation in proportion to the number of children in the family.
European Centre for monitoring violence against women. Spanish Equality Minister Bibiana Aido Almagro called for an end to domestic violence against women, emotional violence and trafficking in women and girls for the sex trade, and practices related to certain customs (excision, so-called honour crimes, arranged and forced marriages, etc). “No form of violence is acceptable in a democratic society,” she said, calling on member states to develop strategies, national plans, and methods of prevention to tackle this particular type of violence. There had also to be indicators for the 27 member states, valid sources of information for politicians, and assessment of the results. The minister also called for a European centre for monitoring violence against women to be set up, and announced that, during the first half of this year, a draft directive on combating human trafficking will be brought forward.
Violence against women is a crime. “We need men to help us resolve these problems,” stated Commission Vice-President with responsibility for Equal Opportunities Viviane Reding, claiming that every day is women's day, and has been for 100 years! Presenting the Women's Charter (see EUROPE 10092), Reding highlighted an area for action: dignity, integrity and an end to gender-based violence, “because this is an infringement of women's and girls' fundamental rights”. She said it was important for women to speak up to break this taboo. She said that, in September of this year, the Commission would present a strategy on gender equality 2010-2015 and would, on 25 November, hold a conference on putting an end to violence against women, “violence which is a crime!”, she said. (G.B./transl.rt)