The implementation of gender mainstreaming in migration policies
requires the full integration of a gender equality perspective into
all legislation, policies, programmes and infrastructure that regulate
migration and cater for the needs of migrant people. It is also
necessary to address the violence, inequalities and discrimination
experienced by migrants, including asylum seekers and refugees,
in particular when such phenomena are gender-based and intersectional.
To this end, the Assembly calls on member States to:
5.1 ensure that gender-based violence
is recognised as a form of persecution within the meaning of Article 1
A.(2) of the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status
of Refugees and the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention;
5.2 ensure that single-sex accommodation facilities are available
for migrants, but that mixed gender facilities are also permitted,
in particular to enable families to remain together and where this
facilitates family reunion;
5.3 pay special attention to the need to provide young boys,
especially adolescents, with separate accommodation facilities from
those for young girls, but also from those for adult men;
5.4 in accordance with Objective 3 of the United Nations Global
Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, provide migrants,
refugees and asylum seekers, during their displacement, application
processes, settlement, resettlement and integration, as well as
during return procedures, with accessible, accurate, timely, gender-responsive
information, available in relevant languages, on the policies, regulations
and services available in the host country, covering topics such
as protection against gender-based violence and discrimination,
and access to justice, the labour market, education, health and
housing, as well as to asylum and migration procedures and services;
5.5 provide legal assistance and interpretation services by
trained staff for women and girls seeking asylum or residency, with
full respect for human rights and due consideration for the gender-sensitive needs
of migrant women (namely provision of female interpreters where
appropriate, psychological support, information on rights, etc.);
5.6 recognising that women and girls are the most at-risk
and vulnerable group among migrants, with a range of different needs,
provide specific protection for unaccompanied girls, single mothers,
pregnant women, women with young children and women experiencing
intersectional discrimination in particular;
5.7 facilitate access to gender-specific healthcare services,
including sexual and reproductive health and hygiene services, education
for migrant and asylum-seeking women and girls and obstetrical and prenatal
and postnatal services (including breast-feeding facilities), as
well as sexual health and hygiene education and services for men
and boys, ensuring respect for privacy and confidentiality, and
reform legislation and policies that deny or limit access to health
services on the basis of residence or migration status. As far as
possible, health services should be mainstreamed nationally;
5.8 ensure that feminine hygiene products are supplied to
reception centres for migrants and asylum-seeking women and girls,
and ensure adequate assistance in using them;
5.9 take into consideration the family situation and the possibility
of family reunification to guarantee a better life for migrants
and the right to family life;
5.10 ensure that migrant women and girls arriving in Europe,
including through family reunification, obtain personal documentation
of long-term validity within a short time;
5.11 develop a common system to recognise migrants’ qualifications,
skills and diplomas and adopt gender-sensitive employment policies
and support frameworks;
5.12 take measures to regulate and improve the working conditions
of migrants to eliminate intersectional forms of exploitation and
discrimination;
5.13 take into account the fact that a higher proportion of
women than men are in informal employment, such as care and domestic
work, and ensure that the rights of migrant women in this type of
employment are ensured through adequate supervision and accessible
assistance;
5.14 take a gender-sensitive approach to policies dealing with
the protection, education and integration of migrant, refugee and
asylum-seeking children, in order to take into account the heightened vulnerabilities
of girls, notably in relation to gender-based violence and trafficking,
particularly for sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.
