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Resolution 2290 (2019)
Towards an ambitious Council of Europe agenda for gender equality
1. As long as women and men do not
enjoy the same empowerment, participation, visibility and access
to resources, we cannot consider human rights to be respected, or
democracy and the rule of law to be achieved. Gender equality is
therefore central to the mission of the Council of Europe. In turn,
peace, human rights, democracy and the rule of law are key points
without which it would be impossible to build the institutional infrastructure
required to achieve gender equality.
2. The Council of Europe has promoted equality and tackled discrimination
since its foundation seventy years ago. Since 1979, when the first
relevant text of the Committee of Ministers was adopted, and particularly in
the last three decades, the Organisation has stepped up efforts
to promote gender equality and combat discrimination on grounds
of sex. The Assembly notes with satisfaction that gender equality
has been a priority for successive presidencies of the Committee
of Ministers, including the present French presidency.
3. The European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5) and its
additional protocols, the European Social Charter (ETS No. 35) and
other legally binding texts – including the Council of Europe Convention
on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic
Violence (CETS No. 210, “Istanbul Convention”) and the Council of
Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings
(CETS No. 197) – have built a solid human rights protection system
enshrining the principle that women’s rights are an integral part
of human rights. These conventions have also established violence
against women as a human rights violation and recognised that the
realisation of de jure and de facto equality between women
and men is a key element in the prevention of this scourge. They
contain a compelling call for gender mainstreaming and gender equality,
and provide unique and valuable guidance in this domain.
4. In addition, several non-binding texts adopted by the Committee
of Ministers of the Council of Europe have contributed to promoting
and guiding efforts towards greater gender equality in areas such
as economic empowerment, participation in public life and political
representation, women in the media, the rights of migrant women,
gender mainstreaming in sport and the rights of women with disabilities.
Most recently, these texts have also contributed to preventing and
combating sexism.
5. Equal participation is about more than numbers. Women’s empowerment
is crucial to achieving gender equality: it makes women aware of
unequal power relations and equips them to overcome inequalities
in all fields of life.
6. The Parliamentary Assembly, bringing together parliamentarians
from all the member States of the Council of Europe, has played
a leading role in the work of the Organisation in this area. It
has triggered progress in combating all forms of discrimination
against women and has recommended measures to tackle it, such as
gender quotas in politics, policies to increase women’s participation
in the economy, and the balancing of professional and private life.
The Assembly has adopted a firm political stance against all forms
of violence against women through its resolutions and recommendations
calling for legally binding standards on preventing, protecting
against and prosecuting the most severe and widespread forms of
gender-based violence, ultimately leading to the preparation of
the ground-breaking Istanbul Convention. The Parliamentary Network
Women Free from Violence has supported the implementation of the
convention by raising the awareness of legislators, policy makers
and the public of the scourge of gender-based violence and by providing
practical solutions and guidance on how to address it.
7. Despite achievements, recent years have witnessed an increasing
opposition to, and erosion of women’s rights worldwide, including
in several Council of Europe member States. Certain government forces and
non-State actors are targeting long-acquired rights and previously
agreed language is being questioned. This calls for heightened vigilance
in defending the progress achieved in gender equality and strong
political commitment and leadership to secure further advances.
8. The Council of Europe’s Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2023
sets out the priorities for joint action by all stakeholders. It
states that the overall goal of the Organisation in this area is
to achieve the effective realisation of gender equality and to empower
women and men in Council of Europe member States. The six priority
areas of the strategy (preventing and combating gender stereotypes
and sexism; preventing and combating violence against women and
domestic violence; ensuring the equal access of women to justice;
achieving balanced participation of women and men in political and
public decision making; protecting the rights of migrant, refugee and
asylum-seeking women and girls; achieving gender mainstreaming in
all policies and measures) should be the guiding principles for
the Council of Europe agenda for gender equality.
9. The Assembly emphasises that achieving the strategy’s goals
requires concerted efforts by all players within the Organisation
and in member States, as well as external partners, including the
private sector and media. It commits to continue to provide consistent
political support for their achievement.
10. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted by
the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 and the subsequent
outcome documents adopted at the United Nations, as well as the
United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (adopted
in 2015), guide the action of the Council of Europe in this field.
The Council of Europe’s comprehensive and extensive legal framework
represents a unique contribution to the process of supporting its
member States in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,
and notably Goal No. 5 on achieving gender equality and empowering
all women and girls.
11. Substantial progress towards such ambitious goals requires
strong political will, adequate resources, institutional mechanisms
and a change of mindset to challenge patriarchal attitudes, counter
emerging narratives that distort reality and attack women’s rights,
and to challenge behaviour that normalises and trivialises violence
against women. Eradicating all forms of sexism and sexist stereotypes,
including in language and communication, is an important part of
this process. Role models, both women and men, can be greatly beneficial
in capturing the attention of the public.
12. The Assembly is convinced that the efforts to reach gender
equality must not been understood as a battle between women and
men, but as a quest for justice, peace and progress. It is therefore
critical to involve men and boys in the planning and implementation
of strategies and measures to achieve gender equality, especially
those that aim at changing mindsets and attitudes. Our institutions
should embrace gender democracy: a system based on the equal distribution
of power and influence between women and men.
13. The Assembly believes that a gender mainstreaming approach
in all policies and measures, alongside specific policies for the
advancement of women, is increasingly necessary to achieve gender
equality and resolves to ensure that its own activities and policies
are gender-sensitive.
14. The Assembly recalls its Resolution 2274 (2019) on promoting
parliaments free of sexism and sexual harassment and commits to
achieving a harassment-free Assembly by 2020.
15. The Assembly endeavours to ensure gender balance in expert
panels and other bodies with two or more members.
16. In the light of the above considerations, the Assembly calls
on the Council of Europe member and observer States, as well as
States enjoying observer or partner for democracy status with the
Parliamentary Assembly, to:
16.1. as
regards gender stereotypes and sexism:
16.1.1. take adequate
measures to implement the Committee of Ministers Recommendation CM/Rec(2019)1
on preventing and combating sexism, with a focus on non-stereotypical representation
of women and men and on countering online sexism, including sexist
hate speech;
16.1.2. strengthen co-operation with journalists’ associations,
traditional and online media organisations and advertising federations
with a view to promoting gender equality and preventing and countering
the use of sexist language and communication, particularly through self-regulation,
incentives and the targeted use of subsidies;
16.1.3. make use of role models, including men, in changing mindsets
and attitudes;
16.1.4. adopt and enforce guidelines on non-sexist language and
communication for institutional information and communication activities;
16.2. as regards violence against women and domestic violence:
16.2.1. sign, ratify, and efficiently implement the Council of
Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women
and Domestic Violence;
16.2.2. pay due attention to and implement recommendations put
forward in evaluation reports concerning their countries and ensure
the involvement of their parliaments in this process;
16.2.3. ensure the implementation of relevant texts adopted by
the Assembly, including Resolution
2084 (2015) on promoting best practices in tackling violence
against women, Resolution
2101 (2016) on systematic collection of data on violence
against women and Resolution
2274 (2019) on promoting parliaments free of sexism and
sexual harassment;
16.3. as regards women’s political representation:
16.3.1. introduce
legislation and policies to implement Assembly Resolution 2111 (2016) on assessing
the impact of measures to improve women’s political representation;
16.3.2. implement Committee of Ministers Recommendation No. R (2003) 3
on balanced participation of women and men in political and public
decision making;
16.3.3. promote gender parity in decision-making bodies, including
through positive measures to ensure that women and men are equally
represented in both elected and non-elected bodies;
16.3.4. set a target of achieving equal gender representation
in decision-making bodies by 2030;
16.4. as regards women’s economic empowerment:
16.4.1. introduce
legislation and policies to implement Assembly Resolution 2235 (2018) on empowering
women in the economy, particularly as regards gender equality and
equal opportunities at work, women’s access to funding for the creation
of businesses, and promoting studies and careers in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM disciplines) among women and girls;
16.4.2. implement anti-discrimination legislation on remuneration
and effectively ban salary inequalities for work of equal value,
with a view to eradicating the gender pay gap by 2030;
16.5. as regards access to justice:
16.5.1. ensure the
implementation of Assembly Resolution
2054 (2015) on equality and non-discrimination in the
access to justice, with a focus on women, notably victims of gender-based violence;
migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women; women from ethnic minorities;
Roma women; women with disabilities; elderly women and other women
in vulnerable situations;
16.5.2. make use of the efficient online tools provided by the
European Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals
(HELP), in particular the online course on violence against women
and domestic violence;
16.6. as regards sexual and reproductive health and rights:
16.6.1. mainstream mandatory, comprehensive and inclusive sexual
and relationship education, conveying unbiased, age-appropriate
information on sexuality, relationships and reproductive rights;
16.6.2. guarantee access to affordable and modern methods of contraception,
with a level of reimbursement equal to other services provided by
national health systems, and adequate, comprehensible information
made available to the general public;
16.7. as regards the rights of migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking
women and girls:
16.7.1. ensure the implementation of relevant
texts adopted by the Assembly, including Resolution 2159 (2017) on protecting
refugee women and girls from gender-based violence, Resolution 2167 (2017) on
the employment rights of domestic workers, especially women, in Europe
and Resolution 2244 (2018) “Migration
from a gender perspective: empowering women as key actors for integration”;
16.7.2. ensure that policies and measures with respect to migration,
asylum and the integration of migrants fully integrate a gender-sensitive
perspective;
16.8. make use of gender-impact assessment tools and procedures
on a regular basis when designing legislation, policies, programmes
and projects;
16.9. implement a gender mainstreaming approach when designing,
implementing, monitoring and evaluating all policies and measures
at all levels of administration, including gender-responsive budgeting;
16.10. ensure the full implementation of existing standards and
the adequate resourcing of gender equality policies and mechanisms,
as well as civil society organisations working on these topics.