26/01/2012 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“Governments must apply zero tolerance to so-called ‘honour crimes’, which must be punished by exemplary sentences to show total rejection of this practice”, said Jacqueline Thibault, President of the Foundation ‘Surgir’ (Switzerland), speaking at a hearing organised by the PACE network of contact parliamentarians committed to combating violence against women, opened by José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD).
09/12/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
While pointing out that the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women is the most comprehensive legally binding instrument in the world and may therefore “save and change the lives of millions of victims”, the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men today asked “the largest possible number of states” to sign and ratify this convention and to implement it effectively.
09/12/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The Committee on Equal Opportunities today called for renewed impetus to be given to the promotion, protection and effective implementation of women's rights worldwide, and for periodic evaluation of those rights. A report by Lydie Err (Luxembourg, SOC), approved by the Committee, points out that, all over the world, violence disproportionately affects women: one women in three has, at some point in her life, been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some other way.
25/11/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“We must fight every form of violence against women, even when there is no visible sign” said Mr Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD), Chairperson of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. The International day for the elimination of violence against women is a reminder of how widespread violence against women is worldwide. Psychological violence leaves no visible sign, yet its scars last a long time.
25/11/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
PACE Standing committee, meeting in Edinburgh on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, has adopted a declaration that freedom from violence should be the first human right. “Millions of women and girls in the world have this right violated every day as they are specifically targeted in the context of war and conflicts.
06/10/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
A former TV news presenter who was stalked three times in a 15-year career has told Council of Europe parliamentarians of “a devastating crime that, beginning often with small, incremental, steps, utterly destroys lives”.
09/09/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
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”.
09/09/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities today warned that pre-natal sex selection has reached “worrying proportions” in several Council of Europe member states, in particular Albania, Armenia and Azerbaijan where the ratio is 112 boys for 100 girls, and in Georgia where the ratio is 111 boys for 100 girls. In adopting a draft resolution based on the report by Doris Stump (Switzerland, SOC), the Committee calls on these four countries to “investigate the causes and reasons behind skewed sex ratios at birth” and to step up their efforts to “raise the status of women in society”.
07/09/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The use of pre-natal sex selection in Europe will be the focus of the meeting which the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities will be holding in Paris on 9 September 2011. Members of the committee will be considering a draft resolution based on the report by Doris Stump (Switzerland, SOC) which severely criticises pre-natal sex selection for non-medical reasons and puts forward a number of proposed measures for the countries concerned to deal with this practice.
23/06/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“The status of women and gender equality are regressing significantly in Ukraine and have been doing so for several months”, said Olena Bondarenko (Ukraine, EPP/CD) today at a hearing on the situation of women in Ukraine held following a motion for a resolution presented by Viola von Cramon-Taubadel (Germany, SOC). “Political leaders are making more and more sexist comments in public about women and the media are constantly conveying stereotypes that degrade the image of women”, she added.
21/06/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“The media have a key role to play in challenging the myths that persist in the portrayal of rape, which influence the public’s perception of this crime”, said the Eaves NGO representative Heather Harvey in Strasbourg today, at a meeting of the network of PACE contact parliamentarians actively combating violence against women.
15/06/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
PACE representatives and the United Nations have called on all 27 member states of the European Union – and the EU itself – to sign up to the groundbreaking new Council of Europe Convention on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. José Mendes Bota, Chair of PACE’s Equal Opportunities Committee, said: “Violence against women is a human rights violation born out of unequal power relations between women and men. This convention is a crucial landmark on the way towards ensuring equal enjoyment of human rights, and I urge all those European countries which have not yet done so to become parties to it, so that its great potential can be fully exploited.”