This week we celebrate the courageous women who have spoken out, taken action against or helped some of the most vulnerable women overcome gender-based violence. Their stories are as chilling and poignant as they are optimistic and brave. Examples were highlighted on Wednesday, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Despite this awareness-raising day, women across the world still suffer horrific and multiple forms of gender-based violence on a daily basis. Last year the European Union undertook a major survey of 42,000 women across all the member states. The findings were shocking. It included statistics which found one in 10 women have experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 15 and one in 20 has been raped. Meanwhile just over one in 10 women experienced some form of sexual violence by an adult before they were 15.
Statistics are easy to glaze over, but this is a shocking revelation and it is just the experiences of European women. In the United Kingdom it is well documented that two women are killed every week in England and Wales by a current or former partner. One in four women in England and Wales will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes and eight per cent will suffer domestic violence in any given year. And every minute police in the UK receive a domestic assistance call.
Although gender-based violence is a global problem which affects women, in all countries in all parts of the world it can vary depending on a nation’s socioeconomic status as well as its cultural norms and values. But regardless of this it has both serious implications for individuals and for the health and wellbeing of global economies. Hence it is everyone’s problem.
The EU is committed to tackling the problem for European citizens and also women refugees who come to Europe seeking refuge often fleeing persecution in their home country only to find they are subjected to cruel and violent and often sexual abuse while transitioning to a supposed ‘safe haven’. We must act; we must protect these victims.
The European parliament has repeatedly called for a strategy on ending violence against women and in 2014 it adopted a resolution to combat violence against women.
In order to show its commitment to equality between men and women the European commission established a women’s charter, a strategy which aims to improve equality between women and men in Europe and throughout the world.
In the last mandate the EU produced guidelines on violence against women and girls and combatting all forms of violence against them.
The EU has also produced several pieces of legislation such as the victims directive which guarantees specialist support and protection from repeat victimisation for women.
The equal treatment directive sets high standards on preventing and prohibiting sexual harassment. The European protection order means that victims are protected from perpetrators when they travel anywhere in the EU.
And the anti-trafficking directive creates a comprehensive framework for prevention, victim support and police cooperation on trafficking, 80 per cent of victims are women.
However, legislation alone will not combat violence against women. Non-legislative measures not only help to reduce instances of violence from occurring but also help to stop it from becoming socially normalised. Programmes such as the Daphne III programme in the last European parliament aimed to prevent and combat all forms of violence, especially of a physical, sexual or psychological nature, against children, young people and women.
The programme focused on high-risk groups and organisations were able to seek funding to help develop their initiatives to offer high levels of physical and mental health protection for women. And in this mandate a similar initiative was introduced in the rights, equality and citizenship programme which has a maximum budget of €439.5m for the 2014‐20 period and which has similar end goals to the Daphne III project.
Labour members of the European parliament continue to work towards the elimination of violence against women. We called on the European commission to adopt effective strategies to eliminate all forms of gender-based violence.
We have also called on all member states to sign the Istanbul convention which came into force in 2014. The Istanbul convention is a Council of Europe convention which sets out a programme of combatting violence against women and domestic violence as well as a programme of victim protection and calls for an end to the ‘impunity of perpetrators.’ It requires member states and other countries to sign up to commit to the programme. So far some 40 countries have signed up to it in and outside of the EU.
A specific area of gender-based violence which is of grave and growing concern is the barbaric act of female genital mutilation. Labour MEPs have called on the European commission to take concrete action to end FGM, a most serious and much underreported global crime.
I have recently been made a rapporteur on a report which explores the plight of women refugees and asylum-seekers in the European Union. I have made violence against women a key focus of the report.
I have also called upon the European commission to increase its effort to monitor and implement the 2011 anti-trafficking directive. Specifically member states should make it a criminal offence to knowingly use the service of a victim of trafficking.
Work is being done every day both at a national and European level to work towards eliminating gender-based violence. I along with my Labour colleagues pledge to continue to work towards prevention of this deplorable crime.
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Mary Honeyball is a member of the European parliament for London. She sits on the women’s rights and gender equality committee of the European parliament and tweets @maryhoneyball
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