The inability of women in many jurisdictions to pass on their surname – and thus part of their identity – to their children can be seen as a form of discrimination against women, but this is only one of many examples of discrimination, especially frequent in terms of women’s personal status and in family law, according to PACE rapporteur Svetlana Smirnova (Russia, EDG).
In a recommendation adopted today by the PACE Standing Committee in Belgrade, parliamentarians therefore called for a new protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights enshrining gender equality as a human right with pre-eminence over any provision deriving from, or applicable under, private international law agreements or conventions.
In the meantime, they invited member states to ensure that they protect gender equality in civil law by reviewing their own domestic legislation (including women’s personal status, marriage and divorce law, and the rules governing the passing on of mothers’ surnames to their children) as well as to review and, if necessary, renegotiate or reject any provisions in bilateral or multilateral treaties which could lead to the acceptance or application of discriminatory rules of foreign law, including provisions validating polygamous marriages and repudiations.
