Author: Maria
Dominguez Hervas
Brussels, november 25 - During
the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women,
on November 25th,
Iratxe García Pérez, chair of the Women’s Rights and Gender
Equality Committee (FEMM), and
Dimitrios
Papadimoulis,
the
Vice-president
of
the European Parliament
responsible
for gender equality and diversity agreed on the fact that Europe has
still a long way to go before ending with cruelty against women.
During
the conference on the elimination of violence against women organized
in Strasburg by the FEMM committee, Pérez García urged EU
institutions and Member States to commit and to take measures at
European level in order to prevent the violation of women’s rights.
Even
nowadays, 25 years after
the United Nations launched
the International Day of the
elimination of Violence against women, “machismo kills.” The
chair of the FEMM committee, Iratxe García Pérez, highlighted
during the International Conference held the 25th
November in Strasburg that half of the world’s population is
vulnerable face to an unequal society that still tolerates macho
violence in its diverse forms. According to the 2014 report issued by
the Agency of Fundamental Rights, at least 9 million women living in
the 28 member states have suffered physical, sexual or psychological
violence at work, at home or in the public space. For García Pérez,
this is an extensive human rights violation that the EU
institutions must not overlook. Greater efforts at European level
must be made in order to end with “one of the largest social
plagues that exists in the world at this moment.”
The
Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee, claims for the need
of a European Directive to guide member states’ legislation to
prevent the violation of women’s fundamental rights. However,
the European Commission excuses the lack of a concrete strategy
against gender violence arguing that Europe has not competences to
legislate on this topic.
In order to elaborate a European strategy against gender violence,
García Pérez states, it is fundamental to establish common
standards to recognize and act upon gender violence. At present, the Treaty of the European Union contemplates two terms: “victims of
trafficking” and “victims of sexual violence,” but it does not
include the more global notion of “victims of gender violence”.
For Iratxe García Pérez this lack of wording hides the reality of
millions of women and girls around the world who suffer diverse
abuses for the mere fact of being women. García Pérez recommends,
thus, including the notion of “victims of gender violence” in
order for Europe to impulse member states’ actions to prevent this
human rights’ violation.
