EWL marks One Billion Rising 2018

February 14, 2018

[Brussels, 14 February 2018] Today, 14 February 2018, the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) will be supporting the global One Billion Rising (OBR) campaign organised by V-Day. We are raising our voices in solidarity with women’s organisations’ and activists across the world committed to ending all forms of violence and exploitation of women and girls. EWL member organisations in several countries have been organising different activities to mark OBR 2018 these days. Find more information here. Today, we reflect on the EWL’s actions and events throughout 2017, the European Commission Year of Focused Action on Violence against women. With these events, we marked 20 years of action by the EWL’s Observatory on Violence against Women and Girls, a unique network that has played a key role in advising the EWL about the reality of violence against women in the European Union (EU) and fuelling EWL’s advocacy messages and demands. Violence against women and girls happens every day and everywhere, being the most widespread violation of women’s human rights in Europe. It is not abstract and women are speaking out loudly about it. Women organisations’ have been alerting decision makers about this for decades and, as the #MeToo movement has emphasised, it’s time for action. The European Women’s Lobby is the voice of many women in Europe, and this is what they tell us: women want to live a life free from violence and fear. They want access to justice, access to support services. They want to be safe. How much more evidence do we need before we take action? How many more women should be beaten, raped, killed, before Europe finds it unacceptable? Violence against women is a European issue, which requires a European answer. And this answer cannot be just a reform, it needs to bring real change. We are half of the humanity; we want half of the future! Convened by the European Women’s Lobby, the European Coalition to End violence against women and girls, a strategic alliance of 27 human rights civil society networks and European NGO’s dedicated to social justice and equality in Europe, continues to call for the ratification and implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, the Istanbul Convention by the European Union and all Member States. Below you will find an outline of the EWL most recent activities and information on ways in which you can engage and support our work to end violence against women and girls in 2018.

Loud & United: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

EWL OBR 2018 visual VAWG

Together with the experts of the EWL Observatory to end violence against women and girls, the EWL issued a factsheet on “Disrupting the Continuum of Violence against Women and Girls”->https://womenlobby.org/IMG/pdf/facsheet_violence_against_women_and_girls_in_europe_2017_website.pdf], which proves that we are far from a Europe where all women and girls can live a life free from violence. The factsheet is now available in 7 other languages as well: [Bulgarian; Dutch; French; Italian; Polish; Portuguese; Romanian. On June 8th 2017, the EWL organised an international conference and demonstration “Loud and United to end violence against women and girls” in the heart of Brussels, gathering more than 350 experts, professionals, decision-makers, women’s rights defenders, and activists from all over Europe. Globally recognised feminist icon Gloria Steinem joined the Conference and the demonstration showing her tribute to the resilience, strength and solidarity of EWL members, Observatory experts and women’s rights activists all over Europe. Watch our video “Loud and United to end violence against women and girls” and find here pictures the two events. Watch our video “Loud and United to end violence against women and girls” “> On December 6th 2017, at the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to the European Union the EWL held a high level conference titled “Istanbul Convention: What policies transform commitments into reality? , which was the highlight of our project in partnership with the Council of Europe. The conference brought together experts from the EWL Observatory on violence against women and girls and academics who analysed the key present challenges being faced when combating violence against women. The Conference also facilitated an exchange with key Council of Europe and EU decision makers, in which the EU accession to the Istanbul Convention was discussed. You can read a detailed summary of the event here and you can also watch a 10 min video of the event soon in our EWL Youtube channel highlighting key interventions from the conference. You can continue to engage with our Loud and United campaign by signing the Rise Up Against Violence Petition, which calls for European decision makers to make Europe a safe place for all women and girls.

#HerNetHerRights: violence against women in the digital sphere

From April to November 2017, the European Women’s Lobby has led #HerNetHerRights, a six-month project to take stock of and raise awareness on the reality of online violence against women and girls in Europe. The EWL has brought together diverse actors from across Europe to come up with innovative solutions and policy recommendations to fight this pervasive violation of women’s human rights and create a safer, more inclusive web for all women and girls. Online violence against women and girls is part of the continuum of violence against women and girls. We must acknowledge its existence and fight against it, because its effects on women – from psychological to economical – are far-reaching.
Funded by Google, the EWL carried set of activities in order to stock of the reality of online violence against women and girls in Europe.

EWL OBR 2018 visual Cybervawg

On 13 October 2017, the EWL organised an online conference that brought together the main actors on the issue of online violence against women and girls in Europe: researchers and activists, decision-makers and youth, survivors and women’s organisations’. Click here to watch the video of the conference and here publicize to get a fantastic summary of the online conference and the tweetchat, thanks to a Storify presentation . The EWL has also produce a Resource Pack that aims to shine a feminist light on the world of data and technology and to offer ideas to help improve the situation : • An Executive Summary of the #HerNetHerRights report which gives a complete overview of the knowledge on online violence; • Its recommendations speak to policy makers and feminist activists; • The Activist’s toolkit reviews all the resources available for women to feel fully empowered and protected in their use of the Internet; • 12 illustrated vignettes with the profiles of the most common types of online abusers. Find the ONLINE Resource Pack here. Find the FULL #HerNetHerRights Report here.