40 Amendments of Hilde VAUTMANS related to 2020/2035(INL)
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 2
Citation 2
— having regard to Article 83(1), 84 and Article 225 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Amendment 17 #
— having regard to its resolution of 3 February 2021 on challenges ahead for women’s rights in Europe: more than 25 years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 b (new)
Citation 7 b (new)
— having regard to is resolution of 21 January 2021 on the gender perspective in the COVID 19 crisis and post-crisis period,
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 c (new)
Citation 7 c (new)
— having regard to its resolution of 1 February 2021 on the implementation of Directive2011/36/EU on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims and to the European Commission's Strategy on Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings (2021-2025),
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 d (new)
Citation 7 d (new)
— having regard to its resolution of 11 September 2018 on measures to prevent and combat mobbing and sexual harassment at workplace, in public spaces, and political life in the EU,
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 d (new)
Citation 7 d (new)
— having regard to its resolution of 28 November 2019 on the EU’s accession to the Istanbul Convention and other measures to combat gender-based violence1a _________________ 1a Texts adopted, P9_TA(2019)0080
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 e (new)
Citation 7 e (new)
— having regard to its resolution of 17 April 2018 on empowering women and girls through the digital sector,
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 f (new)
Citation 7 f (new)
— having regard to its resolution of 26 October 2017 on combating sexual harassment and abuse in the EU,
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 g (new)
Citation 7 g (new)
— having regard to its resolution of 3 October 2017 on the fight against cybercrime,
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
— having regard to the UN report of 18 June 2018 of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Its Causes and Consequences on online violence against women and girls from a human rights perspective (A/HRC/38/47 (2018),
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 13 a (new)
Citation 13 a (new)
— having regard to Directive 2011/93/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA,
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 13 b (new)
Citation 13 b (new)
— having regard to the European Parliamentary Research Service study entitled ‘Cyber violence and hate speech online against women’
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas violence against women and girls and other forms of gender-based violence are widespread in the Union and are to be understood as an extreme form of discrimination and a violation of human rights; whereas gender-based violence is rooted in the unequal distribution of power between women and men, in sexism and gender stereotypes and prejudice, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas violence against women and girls and gender-based violence present different but not mutually exclusive forms and manifestations; whereas those different forms of violence are oftengenerally interlinked and inseparable from offline violence because they can precede, accompany or continue them;exacerbate them; whereas domestic violence against women has worryingly increased during the pandemic of COVID-19 within Member States and this violence is spilling into the online world as abusive (ex) partners also monitor, track, threaten and perpetrate violence with digital tools1a, suggesting that cyber violence can coincide with and escalate to physical violence if not addressed early on; whereas in the EU Strategy on Victims' Rights 2020-2025, the Commission acknowledges the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic has occasioned an increase in cybercrimes such as online sexual offences and hate crime; _________________ 1aWeb Foundation (2020). There’s a Pandemic of online violence against women and girls. Web Foundation.
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas cyber harassment, cyber stalkingamong the most common types of gender-based cyberviolence are crimes such as cyber harassment, cyber stalking by using rape threats, death threats, hacking attempts, and publication of private information and photos; sexual exploitation online, non-consensual pornography and revenge porn, impersonation, cyber bullying, trolling, online hate speech, flaming, doxxing and image- based sexual abuse are among the most common types of gender-based cyberviolence and can occur on a variety of platforms such as social media, web content and discussion sites, search engines, messaging services, blogs, dating websites and apps, comment sections of media and newspapers, forums, chat rooms of online video games; whereas some Member States have adopted specific legislation on some of those particular forms only;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas, despite a growing awareness of the phenomenon of gender- based cyberviolence, the lack of collection of exhaustive and recent data and the underreporting of cases of gender-based cyberviolence prevents an accurate assessment of its prevalence; whereas the European added value assessment on gender-based cyberviolence estimates that between 4 and 7% of women in the Union have experienced cyber harassment during the past 12 months, while between 1 and 3% have experienced cyber stalking; whereas already in 2014, according to the FRA Survey on Violence Against Women, 11% of women have experienced cyber harassment and 14% of women have experienced stalking since the age of 15, in the EU;
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas women and girls can be targeted by cyberviolence either individually or as members of a specific community; whereas intersectional forms of discrimination can exacerbate the consequences of gender- based cyberviolence; whereas women and girls having access to the Internet, face online violence more often than men through a continuum of multiple, recurring and interrelated forms of gender-based violence;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas some women, such as politicians, women in public positions, journalists, bloggers and human rights defenders, are particularly impacted by gender-based cyberviolence, and whereas this is causing not only psychological harm and suffering to them but also deterring them from participating digitally in political, social, economic, and cultural life;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
G a. whereas young women and girls in particular, are being subjected to cyberviolence involving the use of new technologies, including cyber harassment and stalking by using rape threats, death threats, hacking attempts, and publication of private information and photos; whereas, in the context of the widespread use of online and social media, an estimated one in ten girls had already experienced a form of cyber violence, including cyberstalking and harassment, by the age of 15;
Amendment 158 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
H a. whereas cyberviolence can lead to psychological, physical, sexual and economic harm; the overall costs of cyber harassment and cyber stalking is estimated at between €49.0 and €89.3 billion1a, including due to loss in quality of life, labour market impacts, healthcare and legal costs; _________________ 1aEuropean Parliamentary Research Service study on ‘Combating gender- based violence: Cyberviolence’ (European added value assessment - EAVA), p.II.
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H b (new)
Recital H b (new)
H b. whereas the growing gender-based cyber violence faced by women can prevent them from further participating in the digital sector itself, thereby solidifying gender-biased conception, development, and implementation of new technologies and causing the replication of existing discriminatory practices and stereotypes participating at the normalization of gender-based cyber violence;
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Underlines that gender-based cyberviolence is afalls on the continuum of gender- based violence offline and that no policy alternative will be effective unless it takes this reality into consideration;
Amendment 188 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses thate impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic has increased the risk of domestic violence and abuse because victims are forced to spend more time with perpetrators and they tend to be more isolated from support networkresulted in a dramatic increase of domestic violence and abuse, ‘called the shadow pandemic’, including physical violence, psychological violence and cyber violence, because victims are forced to spend more time with perpetrators and they tend to be more isolated from support networks; Calls on the Commission to develop a European Union Protocol on gender-based violence in times of crisis and emergency, to include protection services for victims as ‘essential services’ in the Member States; calls on Member States to increase the assistance they offer through shelters, helplines and support services to protect victims and facilitate the reporting and prosecution of gender-based violence;
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Underlines the transnational nature of gender-based cyberviolence, considering the cross-border dimension of the use of ICT; notes that the problem of gender- based cyberviolence is probably more significant than what data currently suggests due to underreporting and normalization of online violence against women; stresses that the overlap with human trafficking based on sexual exploitation of women and girls must be taken into account and fought; underlines that awareness-raising in relation to online human trafficking on social media is essential to prevent new victims from entering into the trafficking networks;
Amendment 214 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Member States to promote awareness raising campaigns and initiatives, to implement national criminal justice laws and specific policies and programmes, also targeting younger generations, to prevent gender-based cyberviolence and to fight against impunity for those who commit such acts; calls on the Member States to establish networks of national contact points and initiatives to improve the enforcement of existing rules, enhancing the prevention of gender-based cyberviolence;
Amendment 224 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Calls on the Commission to promote awareness-raising, information and advocacy campaigns tackling cyber gender-based violence in all its forms while increasing the understanding of victims' rights and viewpoint and the intrinsic connections between online and offline violence to better detect, respond and prosecute this type of violence; calls on the Member States to develop specialised gender-sensitive programmes and training tools for the national services involved in the fight against cyber-violence at all stages, from prevention and protection of victims, to prosecution of cyber violence;
Amendment 234 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. UrgesCalls on the Commission and the Member States to establish a reliable system for regularly collecting statistical disaggregated and comparable data on gender-based violence, including cyberviolence, its prevalence and consequences, and to develop indicators to measure the effectiveness of interventions through cooperation with Eurostat, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and the European Institute for Gender Equality; welcomes the announcement of a new EU-wide survey by the FRA on the prevalence and dynamics of all forms of violence against women;
Amendment 244 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes that inter aliabeing victim of gender- based cyberviolence can lead to psychological and physical consequences, including stress, concentration problems, anxiety, panic attacks, low self-esteem, depression, post- traumatic stress disorder, lack of trust and lack of sense of control, caused by cyberviolence, can have an impact on mental health; points out that it can also lead to reputational damage, breaches on the right to privacy and withdrawal from online and offline environments, contributing to silencing women's voices in public spaces; underlines that it can also have labour market impacts in terms of lower presence at work, risk of job loss, and reduced quality of life, and that some of these impacts compound other forms of discrimination faced by women and gender minorities on the labour market;
Amendment 268 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Notes that younger age women groups are more often victims of different forms of cyberviolence than older groups3a, also due to their greater exposure and engagement online; therefore, calls for targeted prevention specifically for young women at EU level and awareness raising with the aim of reducing offending; _________________ 3aFRA (2014): Violence against women: an EU-wide survey.
Amendment 272 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Deplores the fact that gender-based cyberviolence reduces the participation of women in public debate which, as a consequence, hinders victims fundamental rights, including freedom of speech, and erodes the democratic principles of the Union; regrets that that ‘silencing effect’ has been particularly aimed at targeting women activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and politicians with the intention of discouraging the presence of women in political life and decision- making spheres;
Amendment 280 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Recalls that gender stereotypes are at the core of gender discrimination and are one of the main barriers to the entry of women and girl, girls and gender minorities in the ICT and digital fields; stresses the need to tackle the gender gap in the ICT sector through education, awareness-raising campaigns and the promotion of the representation of women in the sector; , which is particularly high in innovative technologies, such as the AI and cybersecurity domains, where the average worldwide female presence stands at 12 % and 20 % respectively1a through education, awareness-raising campaigns and the promotion of the representation of women in the sector; highlights that one of AI’s most critical weaknesses relates to certain types of bias such as gender, age, disability, religion, racial or ethnic origin, social background or sexual orientation as a result of a homogeneous workforce, leaving women marginalised from emerging technologies, thus exacerbating the consequences of gender-based cyberviolence; calls on the Commission and the Member States to take all possible measures to prevent such biases, specifically by tackling the gender gap in the sector and to ensure the full protection of fundamental rights; _________________ 1a Sax, L. J., Kanny, M. A., Jacobs, J. A. et al., ‘Understanding the Changing Dynamics of the Gender Gap in Undergraduate Engineering Majors: 1971-2011’, Research in Higher Education, Vol. 57, No 5, 2016; Shade, L. R., ‘Missing in action: Gender in Canada’s digital economy agenda’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 39, No 4, 2014, pp. 887-896.
Amendment 318 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Recalls that the Council is to urgently conclude the Union’s ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the ‘Istanbul Convention’) on the basis of a broad accession without any limitations, and to advocate for its ratification, by Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, its swift and proper implementation, and enforcement by all Member States taking into account the recommendations by GREVIO; underlines that the Istanbul Convention is the most comprehensive international treaty addressing the root causes of gender- based violence in all its forms, ensuring legislative action on both online and offline gender-based violence; highlights that this call does not detract from the call to adopt a Union legal act on combating gender-based violence but, rather, complements it;
Amendment 323 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Strongly reaffirms its commitment, as it has previously expressed, to tackle gender-based violence and to the need to have a comprehensive directive covering all its forms, including violations of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, online violence and sexual exploitation and abuse, as the best way to put an end to gender-based violence;
Amendment 330 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Urges the Commission to include cyber violence as a framework concept in the new comprehensive Directive on gender-based violence, enabling such Directive to serve as a cornerstone for the harmonisation of existing and future legislation on forms of violence against women and girls, such as the Anti- Trafficking Directive, the Victims’ Rights Directive and the Digital Services Act;
Amendment 331 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14 b. Calls for an effective cooperative approach and information exchange between law enforcement agencies, the ICT industry, internet service providers (ISPs), internet host providers (IHPs), social media companies, and NGOs, including youth and children’s organisations, with a view to ensuring that the rights and protection of women and girls online are safeguarded and that any harmful content, for instance any content enacting cyber gender-based violence, is promptly removed and reported;
Amendment 332 #
14 c. Calls on the Commission to work with technology platforms in the scope of the Digital Services Act to address illegal online activities such as cyber violence against women and girls, through adequate policy, legislative and technical measures such as prevention techniques and response mechanisms to harmful content;
Amendment 333 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 d (new)
Paragraph 14 d (new)
14 d. Calls on the Commission to carry out a deeper analysis of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on online sexual exploitation and sexual trafficking inhuman beings and calls on the Member States to take effective action with the support of civil society organisations and EU agencies such as Europol, which released a report entitled ‘Pandemic profiteering: how criminals exploit the COVID-19 crisis’ in March 2020;
Amendment 334 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 e (new)
Paragraph 14 e (new)
14 e. Calls on the Member States to ratify and implement without delay the ILO Convention 190 on eliminating violence and harassment in the world of work;
Amendment 335 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 f (new)
Paragraph 14 f (new)
14 f. Urges the Member States and the EU to adopt further measures, including binding legislative measures, to combat these forms of violence in the framework of the new Directive on preventing and combating all forms of violence against women and girls;