60 Amendments of Michal ŠIMEČKA related to 2021/2243(INI)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas many women face intersecting inequalities and discrimination in the EU; whereas intersectional discrimination refers to a situation in which several grounds of discrimination operate and interact with each other, for example gender with other grounds of discrimination such as race, colour, ethnic or socio-economal origin, genetic stfeatures, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, sex characteristics, genetic features, religion or belief, nationality, residence status, or disability, among others, in a way that they are inseparable and produce specific types of discriminationlanguage, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation, among others, in a way that they are inseparable and produce synergistic effects, resulting in a qualitatively different and specific types of discrimination as well as disadvantage because of the confluence of different identities;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas intersectional discrimination is a distinct category from multiple discrimination which is additive in nature in that each type of discrimination can be proved and treated independently as if it were a single ground; whereas this does not apply to intersectional discrimination in which the grounds of discrimination are intertwined, creating a unique type of discrimination;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas the reliance by anti- discrimination law on a single ground analysis renders invisible those who are at the intersection of two or more grounds; whereas finding an appropriate comparator is difficult in intersectionality cases;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas while the term “intersectional discrimination” is widely used, there is a lack of a common understanding of the term at EU and Member State level, resulting in different approaches to the issue;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
Ad. whereas the patchwork of EU anti- discrimination legislation, namely Racial Equality Directive, Employment Equality Directive and a further set of gender equality directives have differing scopes and focus on different grounds of discrimination, creating gaps and an artificial hierarchy of grounds, resulting in structural obstacles to intersectionality; whereas the EU anti-discrimination legislation contain an exhaustive list of grounds, limiting the possibility for expansive understanding thereof with the aim of incorporating intersectional perspectives;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the precarious situation faced by migrant domestic workers is an example where the intersectionality of race, gender, socio-economic status, migrant status and nationality is visible;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 20 a (new)
Citation 20 a (new)
— - having regard to its resolution of 10 March 2022 on the EU Gender Action Plan III5
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas a horizontal intersectional perspective is essential in any gender equality policy and goes hand in hand with addressing the synergistic threats of discrimination;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Urges the EU institutions to address intersectional forms of discrimination in EU anti-discrimination and gender equality legislation and policies; emphasizes that intersectional perspective helps to uncover the cases of people who tend to be overlooked in conventional anti- discrimination frameworks, such as women at the intersections of race, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, social class, disability, migrant status or age;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Points out that intersectional discrimination leads to many women of colour and migrant women being overrepresented in unemployment or precarious, low-paid work, with a higher risk of exploitation and abuse;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Reiterates that the EU anti- discrimination framework is mostly focused on the individual dimension of discrimination, which disregards the broader context, especially its institutional, structural and historical dimensions; urges the Commission and Member States to dedicate more attention to these dimensions of discrimination, both in research and policy-making, in order to understand it in its complexity and put in place effective measures to combat it;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas intersectional approach aims to address social inequalities and discrimination from a complete, systemic and structural perspective, permitting an apprehension of all types and dimensions of discrimination; whereas EU policies have not involved anthe intersectional approach thus far andity thus far; whereas they have focused only on the individual dimensions of discrimination, which downplays its institutional, structural and historical dimensions;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Emphasises the need to ensure meaningful participation of all groups affected by intersectional discrimination at all policy levels, especially racialised groups; Stresses the importance of taking into account the specific experience of women who have been victims of intersectional discrimination in the design, implementation and evaluation of relevant policies, including asylum, migration and integration policies;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls for close cooperation with and involvement of civil society organisations working with communities at particular risk of experiencing intersectional discrimination in policy- making at EU, national and local levels;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the achievement of gender equality cannot occur if all multiples types of discrimination, intentional and unintentional, in its individual, structural, institutional and historical forms, have not disappeared; whereas traditional anti-discrimination laws fail to combat all forms of discrimination and their compounded negative effects on the women concerned;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Calls for the application of intersectional perspective to all existing policies and legislation with the aim of screening them for any indirect and unintended adverse effects such as re- marginalisation of some groups, in particular racialised women;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas women are not a homogenous category and understanding their diversity is key to ensuring that policymaking does not continue to render certain groups of women invisible; whereas women, particularly women with disabilities, migrant and ethnic minority women, Black women, women of colour, Roma women, older women, women with lower education levels, women with health problems, as well as LGBTI+ women, are more often subject to multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on forthcoming presidencies of the Council to make equal treatment and the fight against discrimination a key priority and; emphasizes the need to harmonise the scope and the reach of the anti-discrimination instruments in one horizontal instrument and therefore urges the Council to adopt without delay the Anti-Discrimination Directive; stresses that this directive presents a unique opportunity to address intersectional discrimination in fields other than employment and occupation;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas a key challenge in operationalising intersectionality and addressing intersecting forms of discrimination is the absence of intersectional equality data, including data disaggregated by race and ethnicity; whereas the collection and research of all data should be in line with the Istanbul Convention;
Amendment 72 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Member States to collect equality data disaggregated by gender, racial and ethnic origin, sexual orientation and identity based on voluntary participation, self-identification and informed consent, while protecting anonymity and confidentiality and respecting the key principles of the EU data protection legislation and fundamental rights. as well as the relevant national legal frameworks; emphasizes that the collection of such data should be utilized for the sole purpose of identifying the roots of discrimination in order to inform relevant policy-making; calls on the Commission to develop common methodology in this regard in order to ensure the comparability across Member States, accuracy and reliability of the data collected;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas women subjected to intersecting types of discrimination face multiple obstacles in accessing the formal labour market, leaving them vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation, sexual harassment and mistreatment; whereas across the EU, 91 % of Black women are overqualified in their jobs, compared to 48 % of white women and on the work floor consistently deal with discrimination and micro-agressions, resulting in higher rates of burnout;
Amendment 78 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls on the Commission to develop common standards for recording methods for individual forms of discrimination, including the possibility to list more than one ground of discrimination concurrently with the aim to enable the capturing of the intersectionality in the statistics, especially gender-specific racism;
Amendment 79 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Points out that in the past years the CJEU case law has reflected an intersectional approach to some extent, based on a capacious interpretation of some of the existing grounds under the EU anti-discrimination legislation drawing on the model of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) which regard women and persons with disabilities respectively as including intersections of disadvantage; fully supports further development and facilitation of such approach where possible, also in light of the flexibilities under Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas women subjected to intersecting types of discrimination face multiple obstacles in accessing the formal labour market, leaving them vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation, sexual harassment and mistreatment; whereas across the EU, 91 % of Black women are overqualified in their jobs, compared to 48 % of white womekey areas such as employment, health and education, leaving them vulnerable to discrimination, gender based violence and economic exploitation;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas they nearly three quarters (72%) of all victims of trafficking in the EU and 92% of the victims trafficked for sexual exploitation are women and girls, whereas women in precarious situations facing poor housing conditions, social exclusion and discrimination are even more vulnerable;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
Fb. whereas in the field of employment women continue to be overrepresented in precarious and low-payed sectors, facing discrimination, sexual harassment, mistreatment; whereas barriers to join and remain in the labour market are often amplified by the intersection of gender with additional factors of vulnerability and marginalisation, for example racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation;
Amendment 84 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4d. Urges the Commission and the Member States with the involvement of civil society organisations and affected groups to develop and implement public awareness-raising campaigns to counter the prejudices and biases prevalent among general population, especially those at the intersection of race and gender;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F c (new)
Recital F c (new)
Fc. whereas the COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate effect on the job stability of all women but particularly Black women, women of colour and women from minorities, and the economic recovery and job recovery lags behind specifically for Black women compared to white women;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas lesbophobia must be understood as violence at the intersection of homophobia and misogyny, constituting a type of violence with its own roots, patterns, modes and consequences formed by this intersectional experience; whereas one in six (16%) lesbian or bisexual women reported episodes of discrimination when accessing healthcare or social services;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas the high unemployment rate among Roma women cannot be explained by one single factor, such as discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, gender or socio-economic background, as these grounds are mutually reinforcing; whereas only 16% of Roma women are employed compared to 34% of Roma men; whereas more than a quarter (28 %) of Roma women are engaged in unpaid domestic work including care of children and relatives, compared to 6 % for men, reinforcing the difficulty to break the poverty cycle;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas racialised women, women from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, women with disabilities and LGBTIQ people face additional barriers and violence in accessing healthcare, including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), as a result of discriminatory laws and policies, stigma and stereotypes; whereas these women are more likely to face the gynaecological and obstetrical violence during the pregnancy and the delivery;
Amendment 125 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K a (new)
Recital K a (new)
Ka. whereas social and legal changes, as well as research in the medical and biological field, have led to the recognition of diversity in the definition of ‘sex’ in addition to women and men; whereas sex discrimination has been interpreted in the case-law of the CJEU more broadly to include transgender persons who undergo medical transition;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K a (new)
Recital K a (new)
Ka. whereas the lack of comprehensive education and the unavailability of methods of contraception affect in a disproportional way women in vulnerable or precarious situations, who are more subject to the risk to unwanted pregnancies;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K b (new)
Recital K b (new)
Kb. whereas it is essential to improve accessibility to health care, knowledgeableness and also effectively preventing, eliminating and penalizing all forms of discrimination in access to health care for all women and reinforce their ability to exercise their fundamental rights;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas intersecting types of discrimination can have a serious impact on the life of survivorvictims of gender-based violence such as female or intersex genital mutilation, for example by limiting or impeding their access to the prevention, support and protection services they need as a result of a combination of types of discrimination and cultural and linguistic barriers; whereas professionals entering in contact with victims of gender-based violence often lack formation including the intersectional approach; whereas the gender-based violence is both the consequence and one of the causes of persisting gender inequalities;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas intersecting types of discrimination can have a serious impact on the life of survivors of gender-based violence such as female or intersex genital mutilation, for example by limiting or impeding their access to the prevention, support and protection services they need as a result of a combination of types of discrimination and cultural and linguistic barriers;
Amendment 134 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L a (new)
Recital L a (new)
La. whereas ending child marriage is considered a priority in the 2015-2019 Action plan on human rights and democracy, the EU Gender action plan for 2016-2020 and the EU Strategic engagement to gender equality 2016-2019, it still occurs in some Member States; whereas this issue is widespread in marginalized communities, affected by low levels of education and high rates of poverty; whereas the Istanbul Convention calls for criminalising the act of forcing a child to enter into marriage, some Member states still refuse to ratify it and in their legislation they allow child marriages;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas women with disabilities are 10 times more likely to experience physical or sexual assault compared to women without disabilities; whereas trans women and intersex persons experience further physical violence and sexual assaults than other LGBTQ+ categories; whereas 27 % of the Muslim women of African descent who have indicated that they wear religious dress outside of the house report that they have experienced inappropriate staring or offensive gestures;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O
Recital O
O. whereas hate speech and hate crime against persons of Asian origin, particularly members of Chinese communities, or those perceived to be of Asian origin, has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, including racist attacks and beatings, violent bullying, threats and, racist abuse and cyber violence;
Amendment 153 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P a (new)
Recital P a (new)
Pa. whereas too many women and particularly migrant and ethnic minority women, Black women and women of colour, Roma women, LGBTI+ women continue to be subjected to sexual harassment in public spaces and in the workplace because of persisting stereotypes;
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Member States to collect equality data, including data disaggregated by gender, racial and ethnic origin, based on voluntary participation, anonymity, confidentiality, self- identification and informed consent, while respecting the key principles of data protection and fundamental rights; takes note of the ongoing revision of the European statistics on population; calls on the Commission to ensure that this revision encompasses as many explicit grounds as possible, so as to ensure the collection of reliable equality data;
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Commission and Member States to collect equality data, including data disaggregated by gender, racial and ethnic originrobust, disaggregated and comparable equality data, based on voluntary participation, anonymity, confidentiality, self- identification and informed consent, while respecting the key principles of data protection and fundamental rights;
Amendment 188 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Encourages the Member States to adopt or strengthen criminal and civil laws prohibiting both intersectional and multiple discrimination;
Amendment 190 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the appointment of a Commissioner for Equality and EU coordinators for combating racism, as well as for combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life; stresses that in order to institutionalise an approach that takes intersectionality into account, the Commission should appoint coordinators aligned with all of the individual Equality Strategies; believes that the collective work of such coordinators will help to institutionalise intersectionality, contribute to the important work of the Commissioner for Equality and strengthen the implementation of each Strategy;
Amendment 195 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for the role and cooperation of the Commission’s Task Force on Equality to be reinforced and its cooperation with other bodies to be stepped up in order to ensure that all policy measures include an intersectional perspective based on impact assessments of policies and legislation; invites the Commission to reflect further on how to best draw the strategic potential of this initiative, which can be further developed with the inclusion of the Coordinators of each equality field;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Considers the EC Platform on Disability to be a flagship initiative with strategic potential; invites the EC to set up similar structures to ensure full implementation of all strategies under the ‘Union of Equality’ framework;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Highlights the need for a comprehensive directive on gender-based violence with an intersectional approach, covering all women and girls in all their diversity and LGBTIQ people on the grounds of gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics; calls on Member States to ensure that instances of gender-based violence are appropriately investigated, prosecuted and sanctioned and that victim-support services are comprehensive enough to address all forms of violence with a victim-centred perspective, particularly that which results from intersectional discrimination;
Amendment 202 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Highlights the need for a comprehensive directive on gender-based violence with an intersectional approach, covering all women and girls in all their diversity and LGBTIQ people on the grounds of gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics; regrets that the Proposal for a directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence does not include an intersectional approach;
Amendment 204 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Recalls that the principle of equal treatment for men and women cannot be confined to the prohibition of discrimination based on a person’s given sex, and that it also applies to discrimination arising from the person’s gender identity; recalls that the CJEU has interpreted sex discrimination within the principle of equal treatment as encompassing transgender persons who undergone medical transition, yet notes that no such judgements were issued concerning non-binary or intersex persons, questioning the utility and capacity of EU non-discrimination legislation for the large trans population in Europe who cannot or will not access gender affirmation healthcare or for intersex persons; recalls that such individuals will be without remedy if they suffer discrimination compared to those who have physically altered their bodies; recalls the need for EU anti- discrimination to go beyond the gender binary and recognise gender discrimination; calls on the Commission to come up with a legislative proposal that avoid any risk of legal uncertainty in this matter;
Amendment 205 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls upon all EU institutions, bodies and agencies and Member States to step up their response to the phenomenon of harassment of women; calls upon the Commission and the Member States to counter online harassment which targets girls and women disproportionately, particularly those in public and political life;
Amendment 215 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls for positive action measures, such as quotasuch as incentive mechanisms, mentorships, for women facing intersectional discrimination in public institutions, including in the EU institutions, as a way to promote public institutions that reflectin order to ensure a fair representation of the diversity of society in decision-making;
Amendment 244 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Member States to ensure that the Council Framework Decision on combating racism and xenophobia13 , the Victim’s Rights Directive, the Racial Equality Directive and the Employment Equality Directive are consistently implemented; _________________ 13 Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA of 28 November 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law, OJ L 328, 6.12.2008, p. 55.
Amendment 272 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. CNotes that access to health can be impaired by the compounded effect of intersectional discrimination; calls on the Member States to ensure universal health coverage and to urgently remove the barriers that exist to healthcare for all, including for undocumented migrants;
Amendment 276 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls on Member States to take note of the compounded effect of intersectional discrimination on the access health care diagnosis, particularly concerning reproductive health and specifically for Black women, women of colour and minority women;
Amendment 279 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls on the Member States to adopt and implement strategies, policies and programmes to advance the SRHR of marginalised groups of women and to eradicate the systemic, financial, legal, practical and social barriers they face; invites the Member States to help women in a vulnerable or precarious situation to access free contraception in all its different forms, to ensure that they won’t face any discriminatory practices in access to health services;
Amendment 284 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Urges the Member States to take swift, effective and coordinated action to protect the human rights and address the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and girls and marginalized populations affected by the conflict in Ukraine;
Amendment 285 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Recalls that sexual and reproductive health and rights are fundamental human rights to which all people, in their diversity, should have safe and legal access;
Amendment 288 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Encourages the Member States to ensure accessible and transparent legal gender recognition procedures based on self-determination and in line with WHO’s ICD-11, and to recognise trans, non-binary and intersex people in law; urges Member States to ban intersex genital mutilation and to ensure that intersex infants are not subjected to non-vital medical or surgical treatment during infancy or childhood;