The EU turns orange for the Elimination of violence against women

Author: Hanne Van De Ven

On 25 November the European Parliament building in Strasbourg lit up orange to show support for United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. While the building shined bright on the outside, a heated debate went on within. The facts do not lie: one in third of the European women have faced physical or sexual violence, or both, and every day seven women are killed by gender-based violence in the EU. In presence of Věra Jourová, the Commissioner of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, the European Parliamentary Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) expressed the need for change.

Article 8 of the Lisbon Treaty addresses the equality between men and women in the EU. According to the Treaty, all Member States should take all necessary steps to fight domestic violence and support the victims. However not all Member States have introduced effective laws protecting women against violence. In some countries, a formal complaint must be submitted by the victim before legal action can be taken. This is inefficient as most crimes go unreported because the victims feel afraid or ashamed. For this reason, Iratxe García Pérez of the FEMM called on the Commission, the Parliament and the Council to give the EU the power to combat gender-based violence, by introducing legislation for all Member States.

In response to her request, Commissioner Jourová argued that violence against women is a criminal act and, therefore, it is up to the Member States to act against it. However that does not imply that the Commission is not involved with the subject. Jourová announced that in December the Commission would publish a detailed proposal on improving gender equality in the years to come. Besides other strategies as awareness-raising and funding, also legislation will be a point of action. Jourová stated that the European Commission has already adopted legislation for violence against women and to protect and support the victims. For instance the victim directive which just entered into force on 16 November. This Directive will force the Member States to create victim support structures, as they do not exist in all states yet.

In addition, the Commission published a roadmap on the accession of the EU into the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention. The Council of Europe, as one of leading human rights intergovernment organisations, adopted the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in 2011. Currently only few Member States have ratified or are in the process of ratifying the Convention. Through the roadmap, the EU would make its first concrete step to the accession of the Convention, a powerful tool to combat violence against women.

Furthermore, Jourova emphasized the importance of instruments as available funding in campaigning, civil society and professional training for the people involved with helping the victims. During the debate most Members of Parliament agreed with this position. Gender-based violence is not only a legislative problem, it is a societal and cultural one. Guy Verhofstadt, chairman of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, pointed out “Men have a voice in the issue of violence against women, but often cast it aside as ‘It is a women’s issue’. That is a problem.” He argued that as long as gender-based violence is seen as a women’s issue, the men do not get involved, while it is the men who need to end the violence.

Violence against women is a complex issue. While the United Nations and the Council of Europe have instruments to combat this violence, the EU tackles the problem in various ways without a binding instrument. Although the Parliamentary Committee FEMM called for a united legislation within the EU, the approach in the fight against gender-based violence will remain in the hands of the Member States. Instead the EU battles the issue through funding, campaigning and training, in order to spread the values of equality within the society. After all, society is where the problem begins.