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Resolution 1585 (2007)
Gender equality principles in the Parliamentary Assembly
1. At the 3rd Summit of the Heads
of State and Government of the Council of Europe, the member states undertook
to achieve real equality between women and men.
2. The Parliamentary Assembly has repeatedly underlined that
women should be given a genuine opportunity to accede to top posts
in political and public life at national and European level in order
to ensure a balanced participation of women and men in political
and public decision making.
3. Equality between women and men is an integral part of human
rights and gender-based discrimination is an impediment to the recognition,
enjoyment and exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
In addition, the balanced participation of women and men in political
and public decision making is at the heart of the functioning of
pluralist democracy. Therefore, the Assembly considers that the
Council of Europe, as the continent’s human rights watchdog and
home of democracy, should set the example by applying gender equality
principles in its internal structures and working procedures.
4. The Assembly is conscious of the importance of national electoral
and party systems for the representation of women in the national
parliamentary delegations to the Assembly. In this regard, it welcomes the
adoption by the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice
Commission) of a declaration on women’s participation in elections,
which will reinforce the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters.
It also recalls its Resolution
1546 (2007) on a code of good practice for political parties, which
includes good practices for increasing the equality between men
and women in political parties.
5. In its Recommendation
1738 (2006) on mechanisms to ensure women's participation in decision
making, the Assembly invited the Committee of Ministers to pursue
its follow-up action on its Recommendation Rec(2003)3 on balanced
participation of women and men in political and public decision
making. It welcomes the intention of the Committee of Ministers
to follow up on this recommendation by stepping up its efforts to achieve
the minimum level of representation of 40% for women in the steering
committees and other bodies of the Council of Europe. Furthermore,
the Assembly encourages all organs and bodies of the Organisation
to continue to focus on gender equality and gender mainstreaming
as a specific aspect of its equal opportunities policy.
6. In its Resolution
1489 (2006) on mechanisms to ensure women's participation in decision
making, the Assembly agreed to pursue its efforts to ensure gender-balanced
representation in the Assembly and, where appropriate, to reinforce
it with binding provisions, amending the Rules of Procedure if necessary.
7. In the same resolution, the Assembly agreed to prepare a report
on how the representation of both sexes can be realised with respect
to candidatures to the European Committee for the Prevention of
Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT),
to the posts of Commissioner for Human Rights, Secretary General
and Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, as well as
to that of Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly. New
provisions should be introduced to ensure that these posts, and that
of President of the Assembly, are not continuously occupied by representatives
of only one sex.
8. With respect to candidates for the European Court of Human
Rights, the Assembly has already expressed its position in Resolutions
1366 (2004) and 1426 (2005). Furthermore, in its Resolution 1540 (2007) on improving selection procedures for CPT members the
Assembly established the procedure for candidatures to the CPT.
9. Consequently, with regard to the appointment of members to
the Assembly and national parliamentary delegations, the Assembly
decides to:
9.1. reiterate its appeal
to political parties and groups to, first and foremost, promote
equal access of women and men to elected offices in national parliaments;
9.2. urge national parliaments to ensure that women are present
in the national delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly in at
least the same proportions as they are present in the national parliament, with
the aim of achieving, as a minimum, a 30% representation of women,
bearing in mind that the threshold should be 40%;
9.3. invite political parties and groups in national parliaments
which are involved in the appointment of the delegation to the Parliamentary
Assembly to take into account the aforementioned proportions, especially
if they are entitled to propose two members at least, and to encourage
active participation of women in political parties and in European
affairs.
10. With regard to gender balance applying to the presidency and
the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, in the Bureau of the Assembly,
the bureaux of Assembly committees and sub-committees, ad hoc committees
of the Bureau and to the appointment of committee rapporteurs, the
Assembly decides to:
10.1. ask its
own members, when candidates of both sexes are equally qualified,
to support the appointment of the candidate of the under-represented
sex;
10.2. ask national delegations to the Assembly and any national
authorities concerned:
10.2.1. as regards
the vice-presidencies of the Assembly, to implement Resolution 1348 (2003) on gender-balanced representation in the Parliamentary
Assembly by applying the principle of gender equality for candidatures
for vice-presidencies of the Assembly;
10.2.2. as regards the chairmanship of national delegations, to
appoint more women as chairpersons of national delegations;
10.3. ask general Assembly committees to elect more women as
chairpersons or vice-chairpersons with a view to ensuring that both
sexes are represented in these posts at least in the same proportions as
in the committee;
10.4. furthermore, ask the Assembly’s political groups to:
10.4.1. give women greater opportunity
to accede to top posts in the groups themselves, including in the
selection of candidatures for the position of President of the Assembly;
10.4.2. appoint more women as their spokespersons in general policy
debates of the Assembly;
10.4.3. ensure that women are represented in the Monitoring Committee
in at least the same proportions as in the respective political
groups;
10.5. amend Rule 48.7 of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure,
by adding, at the end of the second sentence, the following words:
“while taking into account the principle of gender equality”;
10.6. invite the Bureau, when appointing chairpersons of ad
hoc committees of the Bureau, to take into account the principle
of gender equality;
10.7. add, at the end of Rule 49.1 of the Rules of Procedure,
the following sentence: “For the appointment of rapporteurs, the
committees shall take into consideration the following criteria
by order of priority: competence and availability, fair representation
of political groups (based on the ‘D’Hondt system’), gender-balanced
representation, geographical and national balance”;
10.8. encourage its members to participate in the informal
group of women members of the Assembly (women’s caucus), above and
beyond any national and political divisions, in order to facilitate
exchanges of experience concerning, inter
alia, the representation of women in posts of responsibility.
11. Furthermore, with regard to gender balance in the procedures
for elections to high-level posts in the Council of Europe in which
the Assembly and the Committee of Ministers are involved, the Assembly
decides to:
11.1. encourage governments
and personalities who have the right to submit proposals for candidates to
the posts of Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General of the
Council of Europe and of Secretary General of the Parliamentary
Assembly (“specially appointed officials”) to propose candidates of
both sexes where there is more than one candidate;
11.2. encourage political groups of the Assembly, when taking
indicative votes on candidates for posts of “specially appointed
officials”, to bear in mind the necessity for gender balance;
11.3. come to an agreement with the Committee of Ministers whereby
the list of three candidates for the post of Council of Europe Commissioner
for Human Rights, which it draws up under its Resolution (99) 50
on the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, shall always
include candidates of both sexes.
12. The Assembly decides that the changes to the Rules of Procedure
proposed in this resolution shall enter into force at the opening
of the January 2008 part-session.