09/09/2011 Equality and Non-Discrimination
Strasbourg, 09.09.2011 - PACE’s Committee for Equal Opportunities today expressed its preoccupation at the negative impact of violent and extreme pornography on women’s dignity and right to live free from sexual violence.
Adopting a draft resolution based on a report by Michał Stuligrosz (Poland, EPP/CD), the committee recalled that this type of pornography “further erodes the conditions for achieving effective gender equality”, alongside other forms of hard and soft-pornography, the widespread use of sexualised images of women for commercial purposes and the portrayal of gender stereotypes by the media and the entertainment industry.
Deeply concerned at the public’s increased access to violent and extreme pornographic material, the text calls on European governments to ensure the effective implementation of existing law regulating the production, distribution and sale of pornography. “A common feature in Council of Europe member states is the poor enforcement of existing law and regulations”, it underlines.
The draft text will be debated during the Assembly’s next plenary session in Strasbourg (3-7 October 2011).