34 Amendments of Sirpa PIETIKÄINEN related to 2018/2684(RSP)
Amendment 1 #
Citation 2 a (new)
- having regard to conclusions of the 2017 annual colloquium on Fundamental Rights “Women’s rights in Turbulent times”
Amendment 19 #
Recital A
A. whereas a backlash against women's rights can be defined as resistance to progressive social change, regression on acquired rights or seeking to maintain gender inequalities; whereas this resistance can be both formal and informal and can involve passive or active strategies to counter further progress;
Amendment 22 #
Recital A a (new)
A a. whereas women’s rights are human rights
Amendment 25 #
Recital B
B. whereas all Member States have assumed obligations and duties under international law and EU Treaties to respect, guarantee, protect and fulfil fundamental rights and the rights of women;
Amendment 28 #
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas Article 8 of the TFEU gives the Union the task of eliminating inequalities and promoting equality between men and women through all its activities;
Amendment 34 #
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas progress in gender equality and in advancing women’s rights is not automatic or linear; whereas protecting and advancing gender equality requires constant efforts
Amendment 35 #
Recital C b (new)
C b. whereas discrimination against women can take many forms, including structural and economic discrimination, which can be hidden and silent because it is so ubiquitous
Amendment 39 #
Recital D
D. whereas the present decade has witnessed a visible drive against gender equality and the women’s rights agenda across continents, including in thsome EU Member States;
Amendment 51 #
Recital E
E. whereas the main targets of this backlash against women's rights appear to be common across countries and include the key areas of the institutional and policy framework for gender equality and women's rights, such as gender mainstreaming, social and labour protection, education, sexual and reproductive health and rights, preventing and combating violence against women, and working space and adequate funding for women’s organisations;
Amendment 58 #
Recital F
F. whereas women’s organisations, groups and women’s rights defenders have acted as catalysts of and leaders in legislative and policy developments in the past decade in the progression and implementation of women’s rights, but; whereas they are experiencing significant challenges in accessing funding due to restrictive criteria and administrative burdens;
Amendment 64 #
Recital G
G. whereas in the first half of 2018, several countries in the EU witnessed backlash againsthad still not ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention);
Amendment 73 #
Recital H a (new)
H a. whereas the level of gender equality is often indicative and a first alarm of the deteriorating situation of fundamental rights and values including democracy and rule of law in the given society; whereas efforts to restrict or undermine women’s rights are frequently a sign of broader societal conflict;
Amendment 78 #
Recital I
I. whereas sexuality and gender equality education is not provided in many Member States and is falling short of international requirements, including the World Health Organisation Standards for Sexuality Educationwhich meets the World Health Organisation Standards for Sexuality Education and the World Health Organisation Action Plan on Sexual and Reproductive Health is not provided in all Member States and is falling short of international requirements;
Amendment 86 #
Paragraph 1
1. Urges the Commission and the Member States to maintain a strong commitment to gender equality and women’s rightske the achievement of gender equality and women’s rights a strong priority and to reinforce related efforts; Notes that the best way to combat violence against women and the sliding back of women's rights is by proactively advancing rights-based gender equality and mainstreaming gender overall;
Amendment 96 #
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that the nature, intensity and effects of the backlash against women's rights have varied among countries and regions, which has in some cases remained at the level of rhetoric, while in others it has been concretised into measures and initiatives as part of a strategic approach;
Amendment 98 #
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Calls on the Commission to closely monitor the promotion and status of gender equality in the most affected Member States, with special regard to the institutional, policy and legislative framework;
Amendment 106 #
Paragraph 3
3. Considers that enshrining women’s rights in law is not sufficient to achieve gender equality; considers prevention through education as a key to invest in;
Amendment 107 #
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Calls for the Commission and Member States to adopt a rights-based approach to the advancement of women’s rights and to ensure the achievement of women’s rights, and to help to guarantee a safe and enabling space for civil society organizations and the recognition of the work of NGOs that promote democracy and human rights, including women’s and girls’ rights;
Amendment 111 #
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on all Member States to assume and abide by the international commitmentshuman rights treaties and conventions, and ensure respect for the principles enshrined in their fundamental law EU Treaties as regards fundamental and women’s rights and equality between men and women;
Amendment 115 #
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Calls on Member States to ensure that women’s rights are protected and recognised as equal principles of democracy and rule of law; further calls on Member States to ensure adequate protection and promotion of these rights as a priority;
Amendment 120 #
Paragraph 5
5. Emphasises that preventing and combating all forms of violence against women is more important than ever, as in addition to persistent problems in state responses, new forms of violence have spread, such as sexist hate speech, misogyny and online violencencluding traditional harmful practices is more important than ever; Finds concerning that new forms of violence have spread, such as sexist hate speech, misogyny and online violence; Recalls the need to implement measures to prevent and protect women and girls from gender-based violence and bring perpetrators to justice; calls on the utmost importance of the implementation of the victims’ rights directive, the European protection order directive as well as the Anti-trafficking directive; Underlines the need to tackle the lack of comparable data to properly inform policy developers on these new developments;
Amendment 126 #
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Calls on the Commission to put efforts into raising public and professional awareness about the value and benefits of gender equality and the need to eliminate gender stereotypes;
Amendment 128 #
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Recalls that ensuring gender equality, and addressing the gender pay gap and gender pension gap have significant social and economic benefits for families and societies;
Amendment 129 #
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5 c. Stresses the need to empower and enable women to participate in decision- making and leadership in order to challenge negative stereotypes;
Amendment 130 #
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5 d. Calls for targeted initiatives for women’s economic empowerment and to address gender segregation and women’s access to labour markets particularly in the fields of women entrepreneurship, digitalisation and STEM to prevent the gender digital divide;
Amendment 131 #
Paragraph 5 e (new)
5 e. Considers working with men an important part of advancing equality between men and women and eliminating violence against women;
Amendment 135 #
Paragraph 6
6. Considers it striking that the backlash is built on a convention that targets violence against women, a policy area on which there is a strong consensusthe campaign against the Istanbul Convention that targets violence against women to be misguided and based on misinterpretation; is therefore worried that the rejection of the norm of zero tolerance of violence against women indicates that the very essence of the principles of human rights, equality and dignity is being questioned; calls on the Council to conclude the accession and full implementation of the Istanbul Convention by the EU and to advocate for its ratification by all the Member States;
Amendment 152 #
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Member States to review and assess their criteria for awarding funding to civil society organisations in order to ensure that they are bias free and support a strong and diverse civil society;
Amendment 154 #
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Calls on the Commission to review the application of gender-equality-based mechanisms for the distribution, monitoring and evaluation of EU funding schemes;
Amendment 158 #
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that their mechanisms for the distribution, monitoring and evaluation of funding are gender sensitive and responsive to the problems that specific organisations face at the time of backlashto apply tools such as gender impact assessments and gender- budgeting where relevant;
Amendment 163 #
Paragraph 10
10. Points out the disastrous long-term impact of austerity measures on women’s economic empowerment and on gender equality, with rising unemployment and cuts in public services and benefits resulting in a care crisis that further disempowers womenat economic crises and public debt in recent years has severely cut public investment in social and care services impacting women’s economic empowerment and gender equality;
Amendment 176 #
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Member States to end and reverse austerity measures andthe cutbacks that apply to gender equality programming, public services and, in particular, the provision of sexual and reproductive healthcare;
Amendment 177 #
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11 a. Calls on the Commission to develop a coherent and comprehensive roadmap for the achievement of gender equality and the protection of equal rights for women, including the elimination of all forms of violence against women;
Amendment 182 #
Paragraph 12
12. Expresses concern that the opponents of reproductive rights and autonomywhere some groups have had a significant influence on national law and policy, seeking to impose further restrictions on women’sundermine women’s political, economic and social rights including health and reproductive rights;