15/05/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“All the necessary background legal regulations to combat violence against women have been enacted in Turkey, but they are not yet fully implemented, thus it is difficult to say that these regulations can eradicate violence against women,“ said Turkey’s Minister responsible for Family and Women’s Affairs Selma Kavaf, speaking at the first meeting of the PACE network of contact parliamentarians on combating violence against women, taking place today in Istanbul.
14/05/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“No religion advocates so-called ‘honour crimes’, and there is no honour in these crimes,” said John Austin (United Kingdom, SOC), at a meeting of the PACE Equality Committee in Istanbul today. “All forms of violence against women in the name of traditional codes of honour must be considered to be crimes, unacceptable in any culture, and be harshly punished by the courts. We should not concede any form of social and cultural relativism,” said Mr Austin, the author of a report on the urgent need to combat these crimes, which was today approved by the Equality Committee.
11/05/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
At a meeting in Istanbul on Thursday 14 May, the Equality Committee of PACE will discuss the report by John Austin (United Kingdom, SOC) on the urgent need for action on so-called “honour crimes”, which sets out specific legislative, preventive and victim-protection measures for dealing with this violation of women’s fundamental rights. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that a total of up to 5,000 people a year fall victim to “honour” killings.
09/04/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
"It is time for Europe to become an area devoted to the protection and promotion of the fundamental rights of women," declared José Mendes Bota, PACE Rapporteur on "Combating violence against women: towards a Council of Europe convention", on the occasion of the first meeting of the Ad hoc Committee on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. This committee is preparing one or several binding legal texts in this field.
01/04/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The North-South Centre of the Council of Europe and the PACE Sub-Committee on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Decision-Making will be holding a conference on the theme: “status and political participation: women as agents of change in the Euro-Mediterranean region” in Lisbon on 2 and 3 April 2009. Lydie Err (Luxembourg, SOC), Chairperson of the Sub-Committee, José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD), Vice-Chairperson of the PACE Equal Opportunities Committee, Christine McCafferty (United Kingdom, SOC), Chairperson of the PACE Social Affairs Committee, and other members of PACE will speak about the participation of women in politics, society and economic life and changes in family codes and women’s rights in the Euro-Mediterranean area.
31/03/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Francine John-Calame (Switzerland, SOC) is to speak at a seminar being held in Kinshasa from 30 to 31 March, by the Network of Women Parliamentarians of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie (Assembly of parliamentarians with an interest in French-speaking concerns). The seminar will concern monitoring of implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the role of women parliamentarians in conflict resolution. Two reports connected with these issues are being prepared by the PACE Equal Opportunities Committee, one on "Sexual violence against women in armed conflict" and the other on "Involving women in the prevention and solution of unsolved conflicts in the Council of Europe area".
24/03/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“The media have enormous potential to foster gender equality, but they tend to perpetuate negative portrayals of women, focusing for the most part on their physical or emotional attributes and confining them all too often to stereotypical roles”, said Doris Stump (Switzerland, SOC) today at a hearing held in Paris by the PACE’s Equality Committee. “The media have a key part to play in shaping individual identities, particularly among young people, and the constant clichés purveyed by the media become rooted in the collective sub-conscience, casting each gender in a fixed role”, said Ms Stump.
19/03/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
How are women portrayed in the media? Do the media promote sexist stereotypes? What is their impact in society, especially among young people? What can be done to combat these stereotypes? What is the responsibility of the media? All these questions will be discussed at a PACE hearing organised by the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, to be held in Paris on Tuesday 24 March. The hearing is the initiative of Doris Stump (Switzerland, SOC), who is currently preparing a report on “Combating sexist stereotypes in the media”.
06/03/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“A genuine democracy needs women in high posts,” said Lydie Err (Luxembourg, SOC), who chairs PACE's Sub-Committee on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Decision-making, speaking on the occasion of International Women’s Day. “And it is political parties which have a key role to play in ensuring that women have access to elected posts and positions,” she added. The Assembly has called for guidelines for political parties to be put into place to reinforce gender equality within political parties, she pointed out.
05/03/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“The under-representation of women in elected posts is quite simply unacceptable in societies which are supposed to be democratic, and we have to find new ways of giving women access to decision-making processes" said Carmen Quintanilla Barba (Spain EPP/CD), a member of the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, speaking in Brussels today at the European Parliament conference on Women and European Elections.
12/12/2008 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“I welcome the decision by the Committee of Ministers to approve the terms of reference of an ad hoc committee to draft a legal instrument aiming at preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence,” said Carina Hägg, Chair of the PACE Sub-Committee on Violence against Women. “Thanks to the involvement of Assembly members and the efforts of the Committee of Ministers supported by Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, it is now possible to start work on drafting a convention,” she added.
05/12/2008 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Girls in Europe’s schools receive less attention than boys and are treated by teachers in ways that reinforce gender stereotypes, educational experts told members of PACE’s Equal Opportunities Committee today at a hearing in Paris. Professor Carrie Paechter from the University of London described how, unconsciously, “classrooms become geared to boys’ interests”, while Professor Christiane Spiel from the University of Vienna showed how teachers’ own beliefs about gender could influence their pupils.