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Women’s rights and prospects for Euro-Mediterranean co­operation

Recommendation 2053 (2014)

Author(s):
Parliamentary Assembly
Origin
Assembly debate on 30 September 2014 (31st Sitting) (see Doc. 13596, report of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination, rapporteur: Ms Fatiha Saïdi). Text adopted by the Assembly on 30 September 2014 (31st Sitting).
1. Referring to its Resolution 2012 (2014) on women’s rights and prospects for Euro-Mediterranean co-operation, the Parliamentary Assembly notes that in the countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, equality between men and women is developing unevenly, alongside democratic transition, with significant advances in certain countries and a situation of instability hampering progress in others.
2. The Assembly commends the efforts of the Council of Europe to strengthen co-operation with the countries of the region and contribute to these processes through interparliamentary co-operation, including by way of the partner for democracy status.
3. The Assembly reiterates the importance which it attaches to the activities of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), particularly in the light of the role it played in the framing of the Tunisian Constitution. It encourages the Committee of Ministers to promote the Venice Commission’s actions in the region, both in its member States (Morocco, Tunisia) and outside them.
4. The Assembly encourages the Committee of Ministers to promote the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (CETS No. 210, “Istanbul Convention”), which came into force on 1 August 2014, with regard to the southern neighbourhood countries, both through training activities on the content of the convention and by encouraging the accession of these countries.
5. The Assembly considers that co-operation by the Council of Europe with the southern Mediterranean countries should also continue to assign a major role to the “gender equality” component in the interparliamentary context.