Advancing Towards the Eradication of Gender-based violence: EWL participation in new developments

Strengthening women’s human rights and eradicating all forms of violence against women (VAW) is an essential part of the work of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) towards achieving gender equality and a society based on the principles of equality, participation and citizenship. New developments at pan-European and EU level highlight the importance of this issue. 
 

The EWL European Observatory on Violence against Women, set up in 1997 with experts from all EU countries, shares best practices and identifies emerging policy issues in Europe. Thanks to the support of the Sigrid Rausing Trust, the EWL Observatory on Violence against Women is starting a new phase. It will meet in Budapest for 3 days in May with new experts coming from new Member States and neighbouring countries, to map legislation, policies and NGOs participation on VAW and to discuss what could be considered common standards for good practices.  

This comes at a time when the Council of Europe is preparing a pan-European Parliamentary campaign against domestic violence against women for 2007. Invited to speak at a hearing entitled “Parliament united to combat VAW” held in Stockholm on 31 March, Grainne Healy, Chair of the EWL Observatory, stressed the importance for the campaign to strengthen the links between national Parliaments and NGOs working on violence against women; to ensure adequate resourcing of NGOs in their work with victims and to include NGOs in the planning and delivery. She called for the campaign to address prevention and public awareness, victim support and perpetrator’s accountability.  

At EU level, the Economic and Social Committee just adopted an Opinion on domestic violence against women (see below in the VAW section) and the European Parliament is discussing the new DAPHNE proposal, firmly requesting to separate the actions on drugs prevention and the actions on violence against women, youth and children.  

One of the key promising steps forward could come from the European Commission’s Road Map on Gender Equality 2006-2010, as it includes actions to support Member States and NGOs to eradicate VAW, including by encouraging MS to establish national action plans. EWL, invited to participate in the Commission Conference on European gender equality policies on May 4-5, stresses the importance of mechanisms to monitor the implementation of commitments and of human rights standards, to ensure that the root causes and consequences of violence against women are tackled at all levels, from the private sphere to the international level.

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