In 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women, all Member States of the European Union made commitments to address the issue of violence against women. They also agreed that together as the European Union, they shared responsibility for this issue and correspondingly would develop European strategies to combat violence against women. The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) carried out an evaluation of Member States progress one year following the 4th World Conference on Women in which it emerged that measures to address violence against women were high on their agenda. Therefore, EWL decided that the time had come to set up, within its own structures, the European Policy Action Centre on Violence against Women.
In the initial period, the European Policy Action Centre on Violence Against Women formed an Observatory on Violence Against Women, which is an expert group comprising one woman from each of the fifteen Member States of the European Union who has extensive expertise in the area of violence against women. As time went by, the Observatory enlarged up to 30 experts. The Observatory continues to be a central component of the Policy Action Centre and has been instrumental in maintaining a global perspective on violence against women.
The task of the European Observatory is to advise EWL on how it should develop recommendations for the European institutions to follow-up actions and build strategies in order to combat violence against women in the European Union. The European Policy Action Centre on Violence Against Women and its Observatory members are monitoring policy developments at national, European and international level.
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