Annual Report on the Situation of Fundamental Rights in the European Union in 2002

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

1999

2004

Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality

2002/2013(INI)

12 June 2003

OPINION

of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality

to the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.

regarding the annual report on the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union in 2002

(2002/2013(INI)

Draftswoman: Anna Karamanou

PROCEDURE

At its meeting on 18 March 2003, the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality appointed Anna Karamanou as the rapporteur for the opinion.

At its meetings on 20 May and 10 June 2003, the committee examined the draft opinion.

At the last mentioned meeting, the committee unanimously approved the following conclusions.

The following members were present during the vote: Marianne Eriksson, Chair; Jillian Evans, Vice-Chair; Anna Karamano, Rapporteur; María Antonia Avilés Perea, Regina Bastos, Johanna L.A. Boogerd-Quaak, Lissy Gröner, Mary Honeyball, María Izquierdo Rojo (substitute for María Rodríguez Ramos), Ródi 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 Gender Equality calls on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, which is responsible for the substance, to include the following elements in its draft resolution:

Right to personal integrity

1. It confirms that action at the EU level to combat violence as a violation of human rights requires a more appropriate legal basis than that of Article 152 of the EC Treaty, which concerns public health. It therefore asks the members of the European Assembly to propose the inclusion of a specific legal basis for combating gender-based violence in the new Constitutional Treaty.

Prohibition of slavery and forced labor.

2. It demands that the comprehensive European policy against human trafficking, which is the modern form of slavery, target the entire trafficking chain, including countries of origin, transit, and destination, focusing on recruiters of victims, traffickers, exploiters, other intermediaries, clients, and all those who benefit.

Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

3. It calls on Member States to ensure freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, as well as the right of individuals not to believe and to change their religion. Based on the need for women to make autonomous decisions, just as men do, about their individual, social, moral, economic, material, and political goals, in order to ensure the optimal fulfillment of women, this freedom must be supported by both the Church and the State, within the framework of their specific and distinct roles in civil society.

Equality between men and women

4. It calls on the Member States to actively improve the position of women by taking, among other things, specific measures to accelerate de facto equality between men and women, in accordance with their obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, in particular Articles 3 and 4; it recommends to the European institutions, when assessing the legality of positive action measures under Article 141, paragraph 4 EC, Declaration No. 28 of the Amsterdam Treaty, and the directives under Article 13 EC, to take into account the approach for substantive equality arising from the above Convention, which means (among other things) that temporary special measures are considered appropriate means to achieve de facto equality and not as an infringement of the established principle of equal treatment.
5. It expresses concern that, despite the achievements of the last five years, gender inequalities (including the gender pay gap, which is on average 16% lower) remain significant and must be addressed in order to meet the Lisbon and Stockholm employment targets.
6. It considers that a future Constitutional Treaty guaranteeing equality and democracy cannot exist without granting gender equality the same legal status as other policies of the European Union and without considering equality as one of the fundamental values of the Union; it calls on Member States and EU institutions to ensure that the new Constitutional Treaty and all future texts are written in gender-neutral language.
7. It calls on all governments of Member States where restrictions still exist regarding women’s access to certain spaces and where women are excluded from certain organizations and associations, to take the necessary measures to rectify this situation, which is incompatible with the principle of gender equality and constitutes a violation of international conventions on the prohibition of gender-based discrimination.

Right to vote and stand for election in municipal and local elections.

8. It once again calls on governments, especially those of countries where the participation of women in decision-making bodies is below 30%, to reconsider the differentiated impact of their electoral systems on gender political representation in elected bodies and to examine the feasibility of adjusting or reforming these systems in order to achieve gender balance.