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Resolution 2244 (2018)
Migration from a gender perspective: empowering women as key actors for integration
1. Europe is more than ever a destination
for people seeking international protection due to wars and political
turmoil or escaping from poverty and extreme hardship. The most
recent inflow adds to the numbers of migrants and refugees who have
permanently settled in European countries, sometimes for several generations.
2. While the issue of migration has become the focus of much
media and political attention and has been heralded as a priority
in the manifestos of all populist political forces, emphasis is
all too often placed on dramatic events such as large-scale arrivals
of migrants and refugees, the actual or purported limited absorption
capacity of, and financial burden on, some States and societies,
or the crisis of the migration management policy of the European
Union.
3. The Parliamentary Assembly believes that political and public
debate should pay greater attention to integration policies since,
ultimately, the degree to which migrants and refugees become a resource
and strength for the host country and are able to contribute to
its cultural and economic richness depends on their level of integration.
4. In addition, for integration policies to be successful, they
must take into account the demographics of migration: whereas women
used to represent a low proportion of the inflow of migrants and
often arrived in Europe through family reunification, today they
migrate independently and in larger numbers. As they flee for a
better life, a number of women face violations of their rights,
including falling victim to trafficking, slavery and systematic
sexual abuse, as well as ethnic or racist discrimination and violence.
This makes it even more necessary for integration policies and measures
to be gender sensitive, in order to tackle the vulnerabilities of women
throughout the migration process while at the same time empowering
them as key actors for and multipliers of integration.
5. The Assembly refers to its Resolution 2159 (2017) on protecting
refugee women and girls from gender-based violence and recalls that
several provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing
and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (CETS
No. 210, “Istanbul Convention”) specifically refer to migrant and
refugee women. Regretting that migrant women are subjected to multiple
and intersectional discrimination, the Assembly welcomes the inclusion
of a strategic objective to protect the rights of migrant, refugee
and asylum-seeking women and girls in the Council of Europe Gender
Equality Strategy 2018-2023.
6. The Assembly underlines the importance of the Istanbul Convention,
the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against
Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS No. 201) and the Council of
Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings
(CETS No. 197), and the need to effectively implement them in order
to provide protection to migrant and refugee women and girls and
to ensure that all the necessary conditions are in place for these
women to become a source of strength for our societies.
7. Because of the role they play within their families and communities,
the Assembly is convinced that investing in the integration of migrant
and refugee women enables the creation of a solid basis for the
inclusion and integration of future generations, and for the development
of peaceful, inclusive and cohesive societies based on shared values
and respect for diversity. In this sense, the present resolution
should be considered as complementary to Assembly Resolution 2176 (2017) Integration
of refugees in times of critical pressure: learning from recent
experience and examples of best practice.
8. In the light of the above, the Assembly calls on the member
States of the Council of Europe to:
8.1. ensure gender sensitivity in the design, implementation,
evaluation and follow-up of all integration policies for migrants
and refugees;
8.2. promote empowerment of migrant and refugee women by countering
all forms of gender-based or gender-specific discrimination, including
in access to education and work, and devise specific measures and
programmes with a view to facilitating their access;
8.3. ensure that the protection provided by legal treaties,
notably the Istanbul Convention, the Council of Europe Convention
on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual
Abuse and the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking
in Human Beings, is well known to all those responsible for dealing
with migrant women and that these treaties are efficiently implemented;
8.4. ensure that the social rights of refugees and migrants
are respected in a gender-neutral way, in accordance with the revised
European Social Charter (ETS No. 163), in particular regarding parental leave;
8.5. raise migrant and refugee women’s awareness of their rights,
including as regards access to education and work, participation
in social, economic and cultural life, protection against gender-based and
domestic violence, and access to justice;
8.6. ensure that the right to family reunification is enforced
without undue delay, especially for unaccompanied child refugees
or family members who are in need of family support;
8.7. encourage and support initiatives aimed at empowering
migrant and refugee women within their families, in their communities
and in society at large, by developing their self-confidence and
self-determination and by protecting women and girls from negative
social control;
8.8. protect migrant and refugee women from all forms of violence
against women, including child marriages, female genital mutilation
and so-called “honour crimes”;
8.9. provide migrant and refugee women with gender-specific
information on the cultural norms and expectations of the host society,
with a view to helping them to identify their role, their responsibilities, their
fundamental rights and freedoms, and the opportunities available
to them;
8.10. provide opportunities for language training specifically
targeted at women and available from an early stage after their
arrival in the host country;
8.11. provide opportunities for vocational training and higher
education, taking into account the skills and specific needs of
migrant and refugee women and recognition of educational and professional qualifications;
8.12. conduct information and awareness-raising activities targeting
migrant and refugee women and men on gender equality and women’s
rights as enshrined in the law of the host country;
8.13. support and co-operate closely with civil society and
all those willing to contribute to migrant and refugee women’s integration
and empowerment, including social partners and migrant and refugee women’s
organisations;
8.14. establish mechanisms to ensure the systematic consultation
of migrant and refugee women’s organisations and organisations that
represent these women;
8.15. integrate the concept of gender equality into the training
of professionals and public officials at all levels involved in
the design and implementation of integration programmes;
8.16. support mentoring programmes aimed at migrant and refugee
women and support the use of positive role models;
8.17. collect and produce detailed gender-specific statistical
data on migrants and refugees, in order to define the most pressing
needs, to detect specific vulnerabilities and strengths and to allow
for the development of targeted and more individualised national
integration policies.
9. The Assembly recommends enhancing gender mainstreaming in
its work relating to migration and refugees, and in the activities
of the Parliamentary Campaign to End the Immigration Detention of
Children and of the Parliamentary Network on Diaspora Policies.