Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs

21 March 2001

OPINION

of the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs

for the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities

on women and fundamentalism

(2000/2174 (INI))

Draftsman: Anna Karamanou

PROCEDURE

The Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs appointed Anna Karamanou draftsman at its meeting of 10 October 2000.

It considered the draft opinion at its meetings of 26 February and 20 March 2001.

At the latter meeting it adopted the following conclusions by 18 votes to 0, with 11 abstentions.

The following were present for the vote: Graham R. Watson, chairman; Robert J.E. Evans, vice-chairman; Kathalijne Maria Buitenweg (for Alima Boumediene-Thiery), Michael Cashman, Charlotte Cederschiöld, Ozan Ceyhun, Carlos Coelho, Thierry Cornillet, Gérard M.J. Deprez, Giorgos Dimitrakopoulos (for Daniel J. Hannan), Olivier Duhamel (for Adeline Hazan), Margot Keßler, Timothy Kirkhope, Eva Klamt, Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler (for Gerhard Schmid pursuant to Rule 153(2)), Kurt Lechner (for Jorge Salvador Hernández Mollar), Klaus-Heiner Lehne (for Bernd Posselt), Baroness Sarah Ludford, Minerva Melpomeni Malliori (for Sérgio Sousa Pinto), Pasqualina Napoletano (for Gianni Vattimo pursuant to Rule 153(2)), Juan Andrés Naranjo Escobar (for Mary Elizabeth Banotti), Hartmut Nassauer, William Francis Newton Dunn (for Jan-Kees Wiebenga), Elena Ornella Paciotti, Hubert Pirker, Bernhard Rapkay (for Martin Schulz pursuant to Rule 153(2)), Joke Swiebel, Anna Terrón i Cusí, Anne E.M. Van Lancker (for Anna Karamanou) and Christian Ulrik von Boetticher.

CONCLUSIONS

The Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs calls on the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following points in its motion for a resolution:

The European Parliament:

- having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights officially adopted by the Institutions of the European Union on 7 December 2000,

A. whereas there are different forms of fundamentalism such as religious, political and ideological,

B. whereas European traditions and values in the fields of respect for fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law and the secular nature of the state are precious and continue to unfold in society, on the basis of its developing new needs; whereas it is important to protect those traditions from attacks by extremist and bigoted groups,

C. whereas, when religious communities assume powers which belong to the public sector, they operate de facto in opposition to the democratic rule of law in the EU,

D. deploring the interference of the Churches and religious communities in the public and political life of the state, in particular when such interference is designed to restrict human rights and fundamental freedoms, for instance in the sexual or reproductive sphere, or incite and encourage discrimination,

E. whereas fundamentalism is not an alien phenomenon to the EU and poses a threat to the freedoms and fundamental rights of individuals in that it aims to compel public authorities and institutions to adopt a one-sided approach, which precludes equality of rights for those who do not share that view,

F. whereas millions of women world-wide are deprived of basic human and civil rights, such as the right to vote and stand for election,

G. whereas the right to religious freedom, including the right to change faith, the right not to have a religion and the right to practise one’s faith, are incorporated in many international treaties and constitutional traditions in the Member States,

H. whereas all the inhabitants of the EU should be familiar with and respect the fundamental principles of democracy, human rights and civil liberties,

I. whereas the Member States also have a Community legal framework which enables them to adopt an effective policy to combat discrimination and create a common asylum system and a new immigration policy (Article 13 and Title IV of the EC Treaty),

J. whereas women must have the ability and freedom to choose a religious faith and to use the religious symbols expressing it if they wish to assert their identity,

K. whereas, although having children must be a purely personal matter, women’s reproductive functions are often controlled by the family, national legislation and/or religious leaders; whereas furthermore most of those responsible for controlling women’s reproductivity, at any level, are men,

1. Considers that no political system or religious movement can be above respect for fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms and that neither political affiliation nor religious faith may be used as a mark of identity of citizens;

2. Is convinced that there can be no true democracy without respect for women’s rights, including the right of self-determination and gender equality;

3. Rejects the use of politics as a means of restricting women’s freedoms and rights or as a means of any form of discrimination; condemns the administrations of religious organisations and the leaders of extremist political movements who promote racial discrimination, xenophobia, fanaticism and the exclusion of women from leading positions in the political and religious hierarchy;

4. Condemns any action which endangers the physical or mental integrity and health of women, such as clitoridectomy; calls on the Member States to adopt legislation to outlaw that practice;

Justification:

According to the British Medical Association, 3 000 such interventions are carried out each year in the United Kingdom, while, according to research carried out under the Daphne Programme, the majority of women immigrants to Europe are from countries which practise clitoridectomy. In the EU, only Sweden and the United Kingdom have laws which prohibit this practice.

5. Condemns any control of women’s reproductivity in the name of religion, race, culture or ethnicity; considers that women have the right to choose if and/or when they will have children and how many; all women, irrespective of age, have the right to information and access to services relating to reproductivity;

6. Condemns all actions which deny women their right to make their own choices in matters related to their sexual behaviour, their lifestyles and their personal relationships;

7. Condemns the implementation of inhuman, violent and degrading punishments, particularly against women, which are provided by the criminal code or practised in certain third countries, such as flogging and stoning in the name of religious traditions;

8. Condemns murders to avenge honour, which allow male members of families to murder their sister or daughter for reasons of ‘honour’; stresses that perpetrators of such crimes should be treated as murderers under criminal law and by the courts;

Justification:

In September 2000, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimated that some 5 000 women and girls are murdered every year by male members of their families for reasons of ‘honour’. The perpetrators often go unpunished in countries where such forms of violence are considered acceptable ways of controlling women’s behaviour and not as serious crimes.

9. Calls on the Member States to adopt legislation which ensures respect for multiculturalism and promotes measures to eliminate ghettos;

10. Calls on the Member States to remain neutral vis-à-vis the various religious creeds, to retain their secular character, ensuring a complete division of responsibilities between Church and State, and to abolish any legal and practical obstacles to the performance of religious duties and the use of religious symbols, insofar as religious precepts are compatible with national legislation, the rule of law and international conventions;

11. Proposes that the common foreign policy be shaped and implemented on the basis of such principles (democracy and respect for human rights) and be conducted in such a way (addressing issues and tackling problems by peaceful means) as to contribute substantially to efforts to eradicate anti-European (anti-Western) reaction or fundamentalist tendencies;

12. Calls on the Council to urge third country regimes with which it concludes economic and trade agreements not to intervene in the lives of their citizens, and particularly women, in a manner contrary to international conventions on respect for human rights;

13. Supports women who fight against fundamentalism and any movement which aims to exclude them from social, economic and political life and from access to certain geographical regions on the planet;

14. Calls on the Member States to urge the third countries with which they cooperate to take measures so as to ensure that women have the right to vote, to work, to education, to property, to inheritance rights and the right to participate in decision-taking centres and hold public office;

15. Considers the immediate social integration of immigrants, refugees and minorities, who are legally resident in the European Union, to be essential, in the context of a preventive policy, together with the recognition of all their civil and employment rights;

16. Calls on the Council to support the Commission, in the context of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, with initiatives to promote intercultural dialogue;

17. Calls on the Commission, within the framework of the Tampere procedure for the development of a common European policy on immigration and asylum, to recognise discrimination and persecution suffered by women refugees originating in countries with theocratic or fundamentalist regimes as a reason for granting asylum.