08/10/2010 Session
All asylum application procedures should take account of the particular forms of persecution and human rights abuses that women face in the light of their gender, was the conclusion reached today by the PACE at the close of a parliamentary debate on the issue. In presenting his report to the Assembly, Andrej Zernovski (“the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, ALDE) said that this gender-related persecution includes sexual exploitation, forced marriage, honour crimes and forced abortion and sterilisation, as well as rape during armed conflict.
The PACE therefore recommended a series of measures to member states to ensure that proper account is taken of the gender dimension when asylum applications are being assessed. In the asylum process, member states should, in particular, take into account the special problems faced by victims of trafficking and of female genital mutilation. The Assembly also called on the Committee of Ministers to instruct the appropriate inter-governmental body in the Council of Europe to carry out a study on the approach of member states to gender-related asylum claims and provide them with guidelines on the matter.