Brussels, 16 June 2016] Ahead of the European Council which will take place at the end of June and will address migration among other issues, the European Women’s Lobby has sent a letter to Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, calling on him to listen to women’s voices and take urgent action to uphold the human rights of women and girls refugees in Europe.
The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) just concluded a unique five-month project “From conflict to peace? Women’s and girls’ voices on the move”, aiming to raise awareness on the reality of violence and human rights’ violation faced by refugee women and girls in Europe, in partnership with the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC). The [#womensvoices report comprises a series of concrete and timely recommendations.
EWL members are also sending a similar letter to their head of state, calling for:
- Ensuring that the EU and all its member states ratify and implement the Istanbul Convention, without any reserve, and mainstream the specific needs of refugee and migrant women through the 5 Ps Framework developed in our report.
- Ensuring that transit/accommodation centres are built and staffed in a gender-sensitive manner, and to use our check list “Implementing a gender-sensitive humanitarian response” at all levels.
- Ensuring that EU and national asylum procedures comply with the UNHCR Guidelines on International Protection and include a gender perspective in all aspects, according to our check list “Engendering the asylum systems”.
- Comprehensive policies to end all forms of violence against women and girls in the EU and its member states, and specific measures to ensure that women and girls refugees and asylum seekers are protected and get access to justice.
- A humanitarian response which succeeds in protecting women and girls from male violence and exploitation.
- Gender-sensitive asylum policies and procedures to help women and girls to escape or denounce male violence and access to their full human rights.
- That EU Member States should increase the number of UNHCR quota refugees and give priority to women within the quota system;
- That EU Member States implement the principle of family unification upheld in the UN Refugee Convention of 1951, in order that mothers, sisters and daughters of men refugees travel to Europe safely and avoid becoming victims of human traffickers;
- That EU Member States apply the principle of human rights to women refugees and children including internally displaced persons (IDP), taking into account especially women’s asylum claims, including child, early and forced marriages, as contained in international instruments such as CEDAW and the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
- That EU Member States implement EU law dealing with asylum, including relevant Directives on gender and women’s rights.