07/09/2011 Equality and Non-Discrimination
Strasbourg, 07.09.2011 – The use of pre-natal sex selection in Europe will be the focus of the meeting which the Committee on Equal Opportunities of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) 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.
The committee will also be looking at the report by Michal Stuligrosz (Poland, EPP/CD) on violent and extreme pornography which expresses deep concern at the increased accessibility of such material and lists a series of policy and legislative proposals for member states to curb the risk of desensitisation.
In addition, the committee will hold two exchanges of views. The first, at 11 am, will address ways of combating the global backlash against women’s rights, with the participation of Dagmar Schumacher, Director of the UN Women Office in Brussels. The second, at 2 pm, will be looking at Muslim women and equal opportunities, with the participation of Andrea Murray, the representative of the United Kingdom Equality and Human Rights Commission, and Noura Jaballah, President of the European Forum of Muslim Women (Brussels).
Only the exchanges of views will be open to the press.
Venue: Council of Europe Office, 55 avenue Kléber, Paris 16e. (Métro: Boissière),
tel: +33 1 44 05 33 60; fax:+33 1 47 27 36 47)