Motion for a resolution | Doc. 12162 | 04 February 2010

Europe and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action: 15 years later

Signatories: Mr José MENDES BOTA, Portugal, EPP/CD ; Mr Pedro AGRAMUNT, Spain, EPP/CD ; Mr John AUSTIN, United Kingdom ; Ms Ingrida CIRCENE, Latvia, EPP/CD ; Ms Alena GAJDŮŠKOVÁ, Czech Republic, SOC ; Ms Claude GREFF, France, EPP/CD ; Ms Carina HÄGG, Sweden ; Ms Gultakin HAJIBAYLI, Azerbaijan, EPP/CD ; Mr Serhiy HOLOVATY, Ukraine, ALDE ; Mr Tadeusz IWIŃSKI, Poland, SOC ; Ms Corien W.A. JONKER, Netherlands, EPP/CD ; Mr Haluk KOÇ, Turkey, SOC ; Ms Elvira KOVÁCS, Serbia, EPP/CD ; Mr Göran LINDBLAD, Sweden, EPP/CD ; Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUIER, Switzerland, SOC ; Mr Jean-Claude MIGNON, France, EPP/CD ; Mr Aydin MIRZAZADA, Azerbaijan, EDG ; Ms Carina OHLSSON, Sweden, SOC ; Ms Carmen QUINTANILLA, Spain, EPP/CD ; Ms Birutė VĖSAITĖ, Lithuania, SOC

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

This year marks the fifteenth Anniversary since the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform “Action for Equality, Development and Peace” that marked the key step towards gender equality and paved the way for further actions and initiatives.

The Parliamentary Assembly notes the progress achieved in most of its member states, specifically regarding women’s participation in the labour market; women’s political participation at local level, new and strengthened legislation on combating violence against women and domestic violence, as well as institutional mechanisms on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

However, the Assembly is concerned about the uneven progress made and the persistent challenges in its member states, such as the gender pay gap, the gap between legislation and its implementation, the situation of migrant women and women belonging to minority groups, persisting gender stereotypes especially in the media and in education, the lack of sex-disaggregated and qualitative data and the lack of gender-sensitive indicators.

Reaffirming the centrality of gender equality for the universal achievement of all Millennium Development Goals, the Assembly urges the Committee of Ministers to:

examine the progress on the twelve areas of the Platform for Action made by the member states and to present concrete measures to fulfill their commitments in the coming years;

develop the annual review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and to use existing indicators and reports as a basis for new initiatives aimed at achieving gender equality;

encourage the member states to exchange knowledge and best practices for achieving the goals set out in the Platform for Action;

systematically implement and monitor gender mainstreaming in legislative, budgetary and other important processes, strategies and programmes.