15/06/2011 Equality and Non-Discrimination
The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Equal Opportunities has urged the European Parliament to help ensure that European Union member states – and the EU itself – sign up to and ratify the new Council of Europe convention on violence against women and domestic violence.
Speaking to the European Parliament Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD) said that further efforts were needed to ensure that the groundbreaking convention quickly enters into force, as it has the potential to change the lives of millions of women in Europe and elsewhere.
Mr Mendes Bota explained that the convention will oblige signatory countries to make combating violence against women and fighting discrimination a reality, and stressed that it contained minimum standards which can be further built upon.
However, he also urged Council of Europe and EU member states to keep national derogations to a minimum in order to avoid “à la carte” implementation of its provisions.