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Resolution 1860 (2012) Final version
Advancing women’s rights worldwide
1. Despite the numerous commitments
made by States in recent decades to promote gender equality and advance
women’s rights, progress in improving the status of women on a global
scale has fallen short of expectations. The Parliamentary Assembly
calls for a renewed impetus to be given to the protection, promotion and
effective implementation of women’s rights worldwide, as well as
their periodic evaluation. The Assembly underlines that the separation
of religion and State is necessary for the realisation of equality
and non-discrimination, both de jure and de facto.
2. Even if 187 of the 193 United Nations member States have ratified
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW), 42 have made reservations to one or more
articles, a considerable proportion of which contradict the spirit
of the convention. In addition, only 103 States have ratified the
Optional Protocol, which recognises the competence of the Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to receive complaints
from individuals or groups. The effective implementation of the convention
itself remains unsatisfactory.
3. The full achievement of the Millennium Development Goals,
in particular Goal 3 on promoting gender equality and empowering
women and Goal 5 on improving maternal health, appears unlikely
by 2015, contrary to what was agreed at the United Nations Millennium
Summit in 2000, the Beijing Conference in 1995 and the Cairo Conference
in 1994.
4. The Assembly regrets the widespread and systematic discrimination
against women and is concerned that inequalities might deepen even
more as a result of the measures taken by States to counter the
economic and financial crisis. It considers it important to concentrate
efforts in certain areas, as lack of progress in them prevents women
from enjoying other rights.
5. More than two thirds of the world’s poor are women, which
leads to secondary discrimination in access to health care, education
and property.
6. Worldwide, violence affects women disproportionately, with
one in three women being beaten, coerced into sex or abused in other
ways in their lifetime. Some 603 million women and girls live in
countries where there is no specific legal protection from domestic
violence; more than one in 10 have suffered sexual violence involving
the use of force, often in the context of armed conflicts; 80% of
people trafficked are women and children.
7. Some 358 000 women die annually due to complications during
pregnancy and childbirth and worldwide around 14 million girls aged
between 15 and 19 give birth each year.
8. Furthermore, one in three women cannot read or write, in a
world where literacy is an essential key to empowerment. Only 19%
of parliamentarians worldwide are women, which weakens the importance
of gender equality issues on national agendas and governments’ political
accountability in this area.
9. Against this state of affairs, the Assembly welcomes the establishment
of “UN Women”, in 2010, and strongly supports its activities, hoping
that this agency will be able to create a new momentum for the advancement
of women’s rights worldwide by giving them more political weight
and visibility. The Assembly also welcomes the establishment of
UN Women national committees.
10. In view of these considerations, the Assembly calls on the
Council of Europe member States to:
10.1. step up efforts to combat discrimination against women
and to give more political weight to gender equality issues and
women’s rights;
10.2. encourage political decision makers to take into account
the gender dimension in all policies and legislation through gender
mainstreaming and gender budgeting;
10.3. create a system to estimate the economic costs for society
of all the types of discrimination and violence experienced by women,
as well as of failure to address maternal health needs, and support research
on this topic; encourage gender- and age-specific data collection
in these fields;
10.4. encourage research on the differentiated impact of the
economic crisis on women and men and, on this basis, introduce appropriate
measures to redress inequalities;
10.5. ensure that comprehensive reproductive health programmes
receive adequate funding, and to lift limitations on access to reproductive
health services both domestically and within development co-operation,
within the limits of the law;
10.6. ensure balanced participation and representation of women
in political life and political decision-making bodies. This can
only be achieved if national constitutions allow for the possibility
of positive action, if the number of political mandates is limited
and if there is a strong political will on the part of political
parties;
10.7. consider including the principle of gender equality in
the system of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5),
through the elaboration of a new protocol;
10.8. sign, ratify and implement the Council of Europe Convention
on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic
Violence (CETS No. 210);
10.9. if they have not already done so, ratify the Optional
Protocol to the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women.
11. The Assembly also calls on the Council of Europe member and
observer States, as well as States whose parliaments enjoy observer
and partner for democracy status with the Assembly, to:
11.1. do their utmost to limit reservations
to international human rights instruments, including the Convention
for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women;
11.2. withdraw existing reservations to the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women;
11.3. intensify the application of the accountability mechanism
in international treaties, considering that the failure of accountability
reinforces gender-based inequality and may lead to human rights
violations;
11.4. ensure that UN Women and its national committees and the
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) receive the resources needed
to fulfil their objectives to increase the impact of women’s voice, leadership
and participation;
11.5. make additional efforts to achieve the Millennium Development
Goals, including Goal 3 on promoting gender equality and empowering
women and Goal 5 on improving maternal health;
11.6. provide support to the United Nations to ensure the conduct
of a global evaluation of the advancement of women’s rights every
ten years starting from 2015.
12. The Assembly calls on Council of Europe observer States and
States whose parliaments enjoy observer and partner for democracy
status with the Assembly to:
12.1. consider
seeking accession to the Council of Europe instruments open to non-member
States which would have an impact on enhancing the status of women
and gender equality, including:
12.1.1. the European Convention
on Nationality (ETS No. 166);
12.1.2. the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking
in Human Beings (CETS No. 197);
12.1.3. the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of
Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS No.
201);
12.1.4. the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating
Violence against Women and Domestic Violence;
12.2. become members of the European Commission for Democracy
through Law (Venice Commission) and submit their laws on gender
equality to it for review.
13. The Assembly calls on the Secretary General of the Council
of Europe to develop and formalise the existing co-operation between
the Council of Europe and UN Women through an exchange of letters
between the two organisations.
14. The Assembly resolves to pursue its co-operation in this area
with the European Union and the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
15. The Assembly also wishes to strengthen its partnership with
non-governmental organisations and parliamentary networks for the
promotion and advancement of women’s rights and encourages them
to continue research on the situation of women’s rights on a national,
regional and international scale in order to establish trends on
progress.
16. The Assembly calls on the Council of Europe member and observer
States to increase effective technical and political dialogue between
civil society organisations (CSOs) and the government by institutionalising
spaces for joint decision making in countries where they do not
exist and effectively using spaces already in existence.