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EU: Call for a European Envoy

for Women's Rights -Petition

 

According to the United Nations, the struggle against hunger and poverty will be lost from the start if the international community fails to strengthen women’s rights. The European Union should take the initiative and appoint a European Envoy for Women’s Rights.

Nearly all countries signed the Millennium Development Goals eight years ago. Poverty, child and maternal mortality, analphabetism, HIV/Aids and environmental pollution were to be considerably reduced by the year 2015. Half of this time has passed and it looks as if most of the goals will not be met.

Women play a key role in the struggle against poverty. But their capabilities remain unused. They do not have equal access to education, jobs and property. Their social status is low. 750 million women live on less than one dollar a day.

Numerous studies have shown that whoever empowers women to decide on their own lives pays respect to women and lays the foundation for economic recovery. To this end women have to be in control of their own body. The improvement of sexual and reproductive health care is the most cost-efficient investment into development.

Women who are liberated from the burden of unwanted pregnancies are more productive. They have more money to spend on food, health and education. Women who control their own life send their children to school. Their daughters will choose for a career, will marry at a more mature age and are more likely able to say no to unwanted sex. They run a lower risk to become victims of violence and disease. If all children were attending primary school seven million new HIV-infections could be avoided over a period of ten years.

200 million women would rather have fewer children, but half of these women do not have access to contraceptives and counseling, causing 52 million unwanted pregnancies per annum.

The political will to seriously advance equal rights is lacking. The European Union must not accept that. The EU must advance the emancipation of women. Not only within her own borders but also abroad.

The EU is the biggest contributor to development aid and the world’s biggest trading block. She has signed treaties with many countries to advance human rights and democracy in exchange for economic benefits. When it comes to women’s rights, however, these instruments are not consequently put to use. Female parliamentarians from the Mediterranean region complain that cooperation with the EU has not produced visible results for women in the Middle East and in North Africa.

Who can we hold to account in Europe? Three European Commissioners, for development cooperation, trade and foreign policy, together with national ministers take decisions that affect the lives of women in the developing world. The impact of their decisions on women remains unclear. There is no one to gather the data, no one to stay in touch with the women concerned, no one to intervene whenever policy decisions are taken that are contradictory to the Millennium Development Goals.

The appointment of a European Envoy on Women’s Rights can make a difference. This top-diplomat should make sure that whenever policy decisions are made women’s rights are taken into account. In the name of Europe she should be able to raise her voice or mediate whenever violence is done to women. She should present proposals to the Council of ministers and to the European Commission and should be held accountable by the European Parliament. She should spur on national governments to live up to their Millennium commitments. But foremost, she should make sure that Europe will have a face and a telephone number, that Europe becomes accessible for women in the developing world who struggle for the rights of theirs sisters and for the reconstruction of their country.

Signatories:

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http://www.womensenvoy.eu:80/

PETITION MUST BE SIGNED FROM WEBSITE.

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