ÅUROPEAN  PARLIAMENT

Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities

 

2002/2013(Ini)

12 June 2003

OPINION

of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities

for the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs

on the annual report on the situation concerning fundamental rights in the European Union 2002

(2002/2013(INI))

Draftsperson: Anna Karamanou

PROCEDURE

The Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities appointed Anna Karamanou draftsperson at its meeting of 18 March 2003.

It considered the draft opinion at its meetings of 20 May and 10 June 2003.

At the latter meeting it adopted the following conclusions unanimously.

The following were present for the vote: Marianne Eriksson, acting chairperson; Jillian Evans, vice-chairperson; Anna Karamanou, draftsperson; María Antonia Avilés Perea, Regina Bastos, Johanna L.A. Boogerd-Quaak, Lissy Gröner, Mary Honeyball, María Izquierdo Rojo (for María Rodríguez Ramos), Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Astrid Lulling, Thomas Mann, Maria Martens, Amalia Sartori, Miet Smet, Patsy Sörensen, Joke Swiebel, Elena Valenciano Martínez-Orozco and Sabine Zissener.

CONCLUSIONS

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

Right to the integrity of the person

 

1.  Restates that action at EU level to combat violence as an infringement of human rights requires a more appropriate legal basis than Article 152 of the EC Treaty, which concerns public health. Calls therefore on the members of the European Convention to propose that a specific legal basis to combat gender-specific violence be included in the new Constitutional Treaty;

 

Prohibition of slavery and forced labour

 

2.  Urges that a comprehensive European policy against human trafficking, the modern form of slavery, addresses the entire trafficking chain, comprising countries of origin, transit and destination alike, targeting recruiters, people who transport the victims, exploiters, other intermediaries, clients, and beneficiaries;

 

Freedom of thought, conscience and religion

 

3.  Calls on the Member States to guarantee freedom of thought, conscience and religion as well as the right not to believe and to change one’s religion, in conformity with the need for women, like men, to enjoy autonomy in deciding their individual, social, moral, economic, material and political aims, with the aim of ensuring the optimal fulfilment of women, this freedom being mutually reinforced by the Church and the State within their specific and separate role for civil society;

 

Equality between women and men

 

4. Calls on the Member States actively to improve the position of women, inter alia by taking temporary special measures with a view to accelerating de facto equality between men and women, in accordance with their obligations under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination of Women (CEDAW), especially articles 3 and 4 thereof; recommends that European institutions, when evaluating the legality of the positive action measures on the basis of article 141(4) TEC, Declaration No 28 to the Amsterdam Treaty and the Directives on the basis of Article 13 TEC, take into account the substantive equality approach following from this Convention, which means (inter alia) that temporary special measures are regarded as suitable instruments to reach de facto equality instead of an inroad to the formal principle of equal treatment;

 

5.  Notes with concern that despite the improvements achieved over the last five years, gender gaps (including pay gaps of 16 % on average) are still considerable and need to be tackled in order to meet the Lisbon and Stockholm employment rate targets;

 

6.  Considers that a future Constitutional Treaty that guarantees parity and democracy cannot be conceived without giving to gender equality the same legal status as the other policies of the European Union and without considering gender equality as one of the fundamental values of the Union, and calls on the Member States and the EU institutions to ensure that the new Constitutional Treaty and all future texts are written in gender-neutral language;

 

7.  Calls on the governments of all the Member States where there are still prohibitions against women entering certain places or where women are excluded from certain organisations and associations to take the necessary steps to remedy this state of affairs, which is incompatible with the principle of equality of women and men and violates international agreements on non-discrimination on grounds of gender;

 

Right to vote and to stand as a candidate at municipal elections

 

8.  Reiterates its calls on the governments, especially those of countries where women’s participation in decision-making bodies is still lower than 30%, to review the differential impact of the electoral systems on the political representation of gender in elected bodies and consider the adjustment or reform of these systems, in order to achieve a gender balance.