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COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
DRAFT COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS - 12 May 2014
PREVENTING AND COMBATING ALL FORMS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS, INCLUDING FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
CALLS ON THE MEMBER STATES AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, in accordance with their respective competences, to:
1. develop and implement, and further improve where
they already exist, comprehensive, multidisciplinary and multi-agency
coordinated action plans, programmes or strategies, as appropriate, to prevent
and combat all forms of violence against women and girls, taking into account
the results of the FRA survey, where appropriate;
2. identify all obstacles that prevent women and girls
victims of gender-based violence, notably violence in close relationships and
sexual violence, from reporting to the relevant authorities and services and
take concrete actions to effectively tackle the issue of under-reporting,
including by reinforcing, where appropriate, special units and/or police units
that deal with women victims, building trust in police and other state
institutions and actors, facilitating access to justice, including legal aid,
where appropriate, ensuring reliable registration and collection of complaints
received by all relevant actors;
3. improve the collection, the analysis and the dissemination at both national and EU level of comprehensive, comparable, reliable and regularly updated data on violence against women, notably on victims and perpetrators, disaggregated by sex, age and victim-perpetrator relationship, as well as on the number of incidents reported by the victims and recorded by law enforcement authorities, on the number of convictions, and on the punishments handed down to offenders, by ensuring a coherent approach which makes full use of existing and, as appropriate, new EU surveys, and involving all relevant actors, including national and European statistical offices, and making full use of the work of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and FRA where appropriate;
4. ensure prompt and effective investigation of all
cases of violence against women, including violence in close relationships and
sexual violence, and prosecution of perpetrators while ensuring that victims'
special needs are taken into consideration throughout criminal proceedings,
bearing in mind Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the
rights, support and protection of victims of crime;
5. enhance the protection of victims of violence
against women when exercising their right to free movement in the European
Union, taking into account Directive 2011/99/EU on the European protection
order in criminal matters and Regulation 606/2013/EU on mutual recognition of
protection measures in civil matters10, taking account of the different justice systems
across the EU;
6. ensure that victims of violence against women and
where appropriate their family members have access to specialised immediate and
appropriate longer-term geographically distributed victim support services in
accordance with their needs, notably 24 hours help-lines, shelters or any other
appropriate interim accommodation, specialised advice and counselling centres
and adequate healthcare services, taking into account Directive 2012/29/EU;
7. establish or strengthen specific and systematic
training for all practitioners and, to the extent possible, future
practitioners likely to come into contact with victims of violence against
women, taking into account Directive 2012/29/EU;
8. pay special attention to the interests and difficulties of all women and girls in vulnerable situations and facing multiple discrimination so as to ensure that protection against violence and support for its victims reaches all parts of society, including marginalised groups;
9. enhance preventive measures, inter alia by
raising awareness of all forms of violence against women and girls and of its
adverse impact in society, by combating, especially by engaging with young
people, inter alia in schools, gender stereotypes that can lead to
violence against women and girls, by emphasising the critical role and
responsibility of men and boys in the process of eradicating violence against
women;
10. develop adequate support programmes aimed at
victims in vulnerable situations as well as appropriate interventions aimed at
perpetrators of violence against women, with a view to preventing further
violence;
11. to the extent consistent with the freedom of
expression and the freedom of the press, support the media in improving public
awareness on violence against women and girls, and in developing and
strengthening self-regulatory mechanisms to promote balanced and
non-stereotypical portrayals of women, and to support zero tolerance against
violence against women;
12. support private sector investment in programmes,
campaigns and strategies to respond to, prevent and eliminate all forms of
discrimination and violence against women, including sexual abuse instigated or
facilitated through the use of information and communication technology and
sexual harassment at the workplace, and to empower victims and survivors of
violence;
13.ensure appropriate and sustainable funding at EU and national level for preventing and combating all forms of violations against women and girls, making use of national and EU funds, in particular the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Rights, Equality and Citizenship programme and other relevant programmes;
14.reviewexistinglegislation and law enforcement mechanisms with a view to effectively combating emerging forms of violations against women and girls, such as on line harassment, various forms of sexual abuse instigated or facilitated through the use of information and communication technology, stalking and bullying;
15.develop and undertake effective
multidisciplinary actions through coordinated services to eliminate female
genital mutilation where such practices are carried ou ,ensuring the
participation of all relevant actors in particular in the fields of justice,
police, health, social services, child protection, education, immigration and
asylum, and external action;
16.collect and disseminate reliable, comparable and regularly updated data on the prevalence of female genital mutilation at EU level as well as at national level where such practices are carried out;
17.promoteappropriate training to all relevant professionals in order to address female genital mutilation, ensure women and girls' access to specialised support services, including health care services and where appropriate social care services, tailored to their needs, and develop measures to prevent female genital mutilation in close cooperation with the communities where such practices are carried out;
18.ensure effective implementation of national laws prohibiting female genital mutilation taking into due account the rights and best interests of the child;
19.
provide clear guidelines at national level for granting the benefit of
international protection to women and girls at risk of female genital mutilation
taking into account Directive 2011/95/EU, on standards for the qualification of
third-country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international
protection, for a uniform status for refugees or for persons eligible for
subsidiary protection, and for the content of the protection granted11;
20.
improve strategic cooperation on violence against women, including female
genital mutilation, with international organisations and non-governmental
organisations;
INVITES
THE MEMBER STATES to:
21.
sign, ratify and implement the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and
combating violence against women and domestic violence;
CALLS
ON THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION to:
22.
consider issuing a Handbook which would bring together all existing EU acts
aiming at combating violence against women;
INVITES
RELEVANT EU AGENCIES:
23.
FRA, EIGE, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA), the European
Asylum Support Office (EASO), the European Police College (CEPOL), Eurojust and
Europol to continue their efforts to combat violence against women and to
strengthen their cooperation and pool their expertise, in accordance with their
respective mandates;
CALLS
ON THE MEMBER STATES,THE EEAS AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, in accordance with the irrespective competences, to:
24.EIGE to adopt in 2014 and implement itsstrategic
framework to supportthe Member Statesto tackle gender basedviolence, and to
look atthe profile of victimsof violenceand the profile ofperpetratorswhile
considering the adoption of specific EU indicators;
25.FRA, EIGEand Eurostat, in accordance with their respectivemandates,to continueworkingwithobjective, reliable and comparable data onthe extent of gender-based violence through EU-wide field surveys, whereappropriate, andrelevant crime statistics;
26.allrelevantEU agencies to work together with the
Member States to facilitate the exchange ofgood practice and assistthe Member
States at their request intheir effortsto encouragereporting and ensure
theproper recording of cases of gender-based violence.
CALLS
ON THE MEMBER STATES,THE EEAS AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, in accordance with the irrespective competences, to:
27.strengthen their support to partner countries in
combating all forms of violence against women, including the elimination of
female genital mutilation, inter alia through support to non-state actors, in
accordance with the EU Guidelines on Violence Against Women and the EU
2010-2015 Plan of Action for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment.
9543/14ACA/ttDG D 2B