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Doc. 8902
11 December 2000
Violence against women in Europe
Recommendation 1450 (2000)
Reply from the Committee of Ministers
adopted at the 731st meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (29 November 2000)
The Committee of Ministers has noted with interest the Parliamentary Assembly’s Recommendation 1450 (2000) on violence against women in Europe. The Committee of Ministers cannot but join the Assembly in condemning all forms of violence against women.
The Committee of Ministers is continuing its efforts in this sphere through the activities of the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG), which it asked, as the appropriate committee, to formulate an opinion on this Recommendation. The CDEG’s opinion, with which the Committee of Ministers concurs and which gives an excellent overview of the work in progress in this field, is appended to this reply.
The Committee of Ministers wishes to supplement the information contained in that opinion with a reminder of its adoption, in May 2000, of Recommendation No. R(2000)11 on action against trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation. This Recommendation emphasises the need for a pan-European strategy to combat this phenomenon and protect its victims. It contains a series of practical measures which can be applied directly by the member states of the Council of Europe.
Furthermore, the Parliamentary Assembly will be interested to learn that the CDEG, realising the acuteness of the problem, organised a seminar to combat trafficking in human beings in South-East Europe (Athens, 29 June-1 July 2000), at which, basing their work on Recommendation No. R(2000)11, the participants adopted the outline of a regional action plan on the subject. This work is continuing through the Stability Pact for South-East Europe, under which a special Task Force was set up following the Athens seminar.
At the same time, work on other forms of violence against women is also continuing. For instance, at the Committee of Ministers’ prompting, the CDEG organised an Information Forum in Bratislava in October 2000 on the theme of “Human rights of girls and young women in Europe: questions and challenges for the 21st century”. The participants – especially the young women and young men present – emphasised that violence is still a major problem in Europe. The Forum produced a series of recommendations for stepping up efforts to combat this phenomenon, which will be presented to the Committee of Ministers very shortly.
The Committee of Ministers has forwarded Recommendation 1450 (2000) to the governments of member states and has no doubt that they will give every attention to the measures it advocates.
Appendix
Contribution of the CDEG on Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1450 (2000) on Violence against women in Europe
The CDEG welcomes the interest shown by the Parliamentary Assembly in issues relating to violence against women in Europe. The CDEG takes the view that this subject remains a critical domain that requires measures and particularly welcomes Recommendation 1450 (2000) of the Parliamentary Assembly, which is a direct follow-up to the work undertaken over the past years by the Council of Europe.1
This last point is particularly relevant in view of the fact that the CDEG is preparing two draft recommendations from the Committee of Ministers to member States:
- The first, concerning action against trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation, will be submitted to the Committee of Ministers in May 2000 for adoption.
- The second, on protecting women and young girls against violence, should be completed at the beginning of 2001.
Basing itself on previous and present work, and having examined the Recommendation of the Parliamentary Assembly as well as the request for an opinion, the CDEG has noted the following points.
1. General observations
The Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation draws attention to the diversity in the forms of violence perpetrated against women (domestic violence, sexual mutilation, honour murders, trafficking, etc.). The CDEG supports this approach and the necessity to combat all forms of violence – not just the kind that seems at a given time to be the most common.
This is all the more justified as it would seem that improvements should be made in the study of the phenomena of violence against women: it is difficult to ascertain if violence against women is increasing (as indicated by paragraph 1 of the text of the recommendation), or if we are not rather faced with a new and growing awareness of these questions. The data collected show an increase in the number of cases, but it would seem that a large proportion of these cases are now reported, whereas before they would not have been.
The CDEG emphasises that, if violence against women remains the most important problem in the member states in the field of equality between women and men,2 the process of combating this phenomenon is not developing in a homogeneous way in all countries and must be supported and encouraged. In this respect, the measures mentioned in paragraph 10.iii.h. of the Recommendation are particularly important.
2. Legal approach
The CDEG notes that Recommendation 1450 (2000) advocates, notably in paragraph 10.i, a series of legal measures. National laws and policies constitute the framework within which actions to combat violence against women are carried out: they make provision for protective measures and means of redress, fix sanctions and ensure the administration of justice. The CDEG can only emphasise the importance of action in this field, as it did in the framework of the Plan of Action for combating violence against women (documents EG-S-VL (97) 1 and EG-S-VL (98) 1).
Moreover, in order to contribute to a better “harmonisation of law” (paragraph 10.i.a of the Recommendation), the CDEG is preparing:
- a study on the state of legislation concerning violence against women in the Council of Europe member states;
- a draft recommendation from the Committee of Ministers to member states, which will take into account the measures advocated in paragraphs 10.i.b to e.
The potential decision of the Committee of Ministers to prepare and launch a “European programme to combat violence against women” (paragraph 10.i) could therefore be based on the above-mentioned work of the CDEG.
As a first step, the setting of standards is an indispensable instrument to combat violence against women. However, it is necessary to go one step further.
3. Concrete and co-ordinated action
The CDEG emphasises the importance of organising co-ordinated action in order to combat violence against women in an effective way. It is indispensable to guarantee good co-operation between all the institutions concerned, such as the police, tribunals, victim protection services and NGOs, so that the victims are able to take all the necessary legal and practical measures to receive help. The CDEG is pleased to note that Recommendation 1450 emphasises the importance of NGOs and the police (paragraphs 10.iii.e, f, g), who have the first contact with victims of violence and who thus play a decisive role.
4. Trafficking in women
The CDEG pays particular attention to this subject, which appears in paragraph 10.iii.c of the Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation.
The trafficking of human beings is regarded as a major problem throughout the world. Hundreds of thousands of human beings, most of them women and children, fall prey to traffickers. They are deceived, sold, ill-treated and exploited in conditions often similar to those of slaves. For some ten years now, this problem has also taken on major proportions in Europe, affecting most European countries, which are trafficking victims’ countries of origin or of transit, or their destinations.
There seem to be numerous reasons for the rapid growth of the trafficking of human beings in Europe. Trafficking is first and foremost one of the consequences of economic transition, another being the severe impoverishment of some countries’ populations, especially their women. The disruption of traditional legal or social structures and even the breakdown of the rule of law, often associated with population movements and reduced supervision of borders, create extremely favourable conditions for the expansion of networks for the trafficking of human beings. What is more, conflict or post-conflict situations encourage all kinds of trafficking to develop. It is important to note that the presence of huge numbers of international military and civilian staff leads to increased demand on the sex market. The traffickers profit from this and expand their territories.3
Confronted with such a vast problem, clearly connected with organised crime, the international community has begun to react. As long ago as 1991, the Council of Europe started several activities in this field. Recent CDEG initiatives worth mentioning in this context include:
- preparation of a draft Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member states on action against trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation, which should soon be adopted;
- the organising of a prevention and information campaign relating to the trafficking of women, for the benefit of the Kosovar refugee women of Albania (May-August 1999);
- the holding of a seminar on action against the trafficking of human beings in south-east Europe (Athens, 29 June - 1 July 2000); this activity will be organised in partnership between the Greek authorities, the Council of Europe, the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights, the OSCE/ODIHR, the IOM and Japan.
These activities show the constant efforts made by the CDEG to “step up international co-operation between state institutions and NGOs in order to improve protection for the victims of trafficking in women”, as advocated by Recommendation 1450. The CDEG wishes to continue organising activities of this kind.
5. Domestic work
This is referred to in paragraph 10.ii of the Recommendation, and the CDEG presumes that it should be connected to paragraphs 38-46 of the report by Ms Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, member of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, on domestic slavery (doc. 8667).
The CDEG supports this initiative and presumes that its aim is to condemn all forms of domestic slavery, even if this could have been formulated more clearly in Recommendation 1450.
6. Other aspects
As has been emphasised in the framework of the general observations above, combating violence against women has to be envisaged as a global process, which must be backed up by studies and research. In order to move forward, it is essential to carry out studies on the practices of agencies and organisations, an evaluation of new initiatives, studies on the consequences of violence against women, its causes and the means to prevent it. This is particularly relevant when the role of the perpetrators of violence is dealt with. The CDEG4 wishes to stress the importance of this aspect, which does not appear explicitly in the Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation.
1 For a list of the work undertaken on this subject by the Council of Europe in general, and the CDEG in particular, see, among others: “Council of Europe activities since 1995 in the field of equality between women and men related to the strategic objectives in the Beijing and Vienna Platforms for Action”, doc. EG(99)10 and “Violence against women: compilation of the main texts of the Council of Europe since 1995”, doc. EG(99)14.
2 This came out of an evaluation meeting organised by the CDEG after the 4th World Conference on Women (Beijing, September 1995) in order to establish a list of priority actions to be undertaken in the field of equality in the Council of Europe. In all the member states, violence constituted the most important obstacle to achieving real equality between women and men.
3 This recently happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina, following the Dayton Agreements of 1995, as well as in Kosovo, where the post-conflict period saw exponential growth in the sex market, and in the trafficking networks responsible for supplying human beings. Some of the governments concerned are dealing with the problem, but it deserves particular attention, especially in the sphere of education and training.
4 The CDEG has carried out several activities in this area. See in particular the recent seminar organised in Strasbourg on “Men and violence against women” (7-8 October 1999).