Preventing and combating gender discrimination in health
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text
adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of
the Assembly, on 21 November 2025 (see Doc. 16286, report of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination,
rapporteur: Ms Camilla Fabricius).
1. Access to healthcare remains unequal
and gender discrimination in health is prevalent across European countries.
In a context of rising attacks against the rights of women and of
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons,
ensuring universal access to healthcare and preventing and combating
gender discrimination in health are important objectives which should
become political priorities.
2. The 2025 review of the Beijing Platform for Action represents
an opportunity to remind United Nations member States of their commitment
to uphold the right of women to the highest attainable standards
of physical and mental health, and to increase efforts to fully
achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including
Goal 3, target 7, on ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive
care, and target 8 on achieving universal health coverage.
3. Women’s health has for a long time been considered to be a
secondary issue. In medical research, the cisgender male body has
been regarded as the norm. The Parliamentary Assembly considers
that the lack of attention paid to the health of women, in all their
diversity, is a reflection of the traditional patriarchal organisation
of society and the profound gender inequalities this entails. Gender
discrimination in health, including gender bias in medical research
and clinical trials, leads to misdiagnosis and delays in treatment. Traditional
views of women and their roles may lead to a societal expectation
that women must simply tolerate pain and discomfort, particularly
when linked to the reproductive cycle, while medical practitioners
may discount or minimise such pain.
4. Referring to its
Resolution 2048 (2015) “Discrimination
against transgender people in Europe”, its
Resolution 2191 (2017) “Promoting
the human rights of and eliminating discrimination against intersex
people” and its
Resolution 2576 (2024) “Preventing
and combating violence and discrimination against lesbian, bisexual
and queer women in Europe”, the Assembly deplores the existence
of specific discrimination against LGBTI persons in healthcare settings,
which can also lead them to avoid medical consultations (the “minority stress”
effect). Gender discrimination in health, amplified by intersecting
forms of discrimination related to disability, age, origin, sexual
orientation, sex characteristics, social status or religion, has
multiple long-term consequences on health status and beyond. It
is time to transform the health-sector culture and to ensure that treatment
protocols take into account the needs and specificities of all genders,
including regarding mental health. Medicine should contribute to
the protection and enhancement of human rights and not to the furtherance
of discrimination.
5. Societal expectations and gender stereotypes affect access
to healthcare, including sexual and reproductive care. Persons seeking
such care may face questions, judgments and attempts to control
their choices and intentions. There is evidence-based knowledge
showing that cis male general practitioners may have a negative
bias against women and LGBTI persons. This must be addressed both
within the medical profession itself and by national governments.
The Assembly emphasises that attempts to control the bodies of others,
including in medical settings and reproductive healthcare services,
are not acceptable and can be discriminatory. It recalls its
Resolution 2331 (2020) “Empowering
women: promoting access to contraception in Europe”, in which it
stressed that access to modern contraception is crucial to women’s
empowerment.
6. Gender-based violence also occurs in the health sector. The
Assembly recalls its
Resolution 2306 (2019) “Obstetrical
and gynaecological violence”, in which it called on member States
to prevent and combat discrimination, on whatever grounds, in access
to healthcare in general. It reiterates that there can be no room
for impunity for perpetrators of violence.
7. Gender discrimination in health compounds existing inequalities
and has a significant economic cost. The Assembly stresses that
gender needs to be considered when devising health policies and
deciding on investments to be made in the health sector, including
research. Inclusive policies facilitate better treatment while investing
in women’s health and combating gender discrimination in health
has not only moral and social benefits but also economic ones.
8. The Assembly welcomes the fact that several member States
have adopted feminist foreign policies which fund programmes supporting
women’s health, including sexual and reproductive health and rights,
and combating gender discrimination in health.
9. In light of these considerations, the Assembly calls on the
Council of Europe member and observer States as well as States whose
parliament enjoys observer or partner for democracy status with
the Assembly:
9.1 with regard to
preventing and combating gender discrimination in healthcare, to:
9.1.1 mainstream gender in health policies, promote inclusive
care models and draft and fund national action plans for women’s
health, including by focusing on preventing gender discrimination
in healthcare and on national LGBTI health strategies;
9.1.2 ensure that equality and non-discrimination laws cover
the area of healthcare services and all grounds of discrimination
related to sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex
characteristics, and ensure their implementation;
9.1.3 include sessions on the prevention of gender bias and
the promotion of respect for identities in the training of health
professionals, both during their studies and throughout their career;
9.1.4 launch awareness-raising campaigns on preventing gender
discrimination in health and gender bias, targeting different age
groups;
9.1.5 ensure that women, in all their diversity, and LGBTI persons
are represented in decision-making bodies in healthcare settings
and in research teams;
9.1.6 ensure, in their design and through testing and monitoring,
that artificial intelligence systems used in healthcare do not reproduce
gender bias;
9.1.7 ensure that women with addictions are afforded the same
access to health services as others;
9.2 with regard to preventing and combating gender discrimination
in medical research and clinical trials, to:
9.2.1 invest
in data collection and research on women’s health and on the health
of LGBTI persons, with the requirement that research proposals be
gender inclusive and gender sensitive, and work towards the establishment
of an ethical European biobank containing female body tissue;
9.2.2 promote an intersectional approach in medical data collection
and research, and look into intersecting forms of discrimination
in health;
9.2.3 ensure that participants in clinical trials represent
a diversity of genders;
9.2.4 invest in mental health research;
9.3 with regard to preventing and combating gender-based violence
in the health sector, to:
9.3.1 sign, ratify and fully
implement the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating
Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (CETS No. 210, “Istanbul Convention”),
if they have not yet done so, and to adhere to it again in the event
of withdrawal;
9.3.2 provide training to health professionals on preventing
and combating gender-based violence;
9.3.3 ensure that the perpetrators of gender-based violence
are prosecuted, including those in the health sector;
9.3.4 raise awareness on mechanisms of redress and on how to
report gender-based violence experienced in healthcare settings;
9.4 with regard to ensuring equality in access to healthcare,
including sexual and reproductive health services, to:
9.4.1 ensure
the accessibility, quality and adequate funding of sexual and reproductive
health services;
9.4.2 provide comprehensive sexual health education in schools,
adapted to various age groups;
9.4.3 adopt inclusive policies on medically assisted reproduction;
9.4.4 remove any medical requirements, such as sterilisation
or surgery, which hinder access to legal recognition or reproductive
services for transgender persons;
9.4.5 work towards ensuring that fertility issues are not consistently
approached with a gender bias and recognising that either partner
could face such issues;
9.4.6 provide free or subsidised access to menstrual products
and appropriate sanitary facilities in schools, public places and
workplaces, with a view to combating period poverty.
10. The Assembly encourages health committees in national parliaments
to hold regular and public debates on women’s health and on the
health of LGBTI persons, and to monitor the situation and needs
at the national level, so as to encourage and support national policy
development.
11. The Assembly calls on member States to support programmes
on combating gender discrimination in health, both at the international
level via feminist diplomacy programmes and at the national level,
including by funding non-governmental organisations working in the
fields of women’s health, LGBTI health, inclusive healthcare and
sexual and reproductive health services.
