EWL delivers 60,000 signatures to Maltese Presidency calling the EU to Rise up against violence!

April 6, 2017

[Brussels, 31 March 2017] The European Women’s Lobby delivered over 60,000 signatures under our petition with WeMove.EU “Rise up against violence!” to Ms Angele Sears-Debono chair of the FREMP working group of the 2017 Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU.

FREMP Rise up against violence Signatures

More than 60,000 citizens are calling the EU (and specially the Member States in the Council) to urgently agree to sign and ratify the Council of Europe convention to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence, the Istanbul Convention, in the broadest way and without reservations. The petition calls the EU to act now to make sure that the European Union takes concrete action to protect all women and girls from violence and actively fights this pervasive human rights violation. You can still add your signature to this petition and join the next steps of this campaign! >> http://bit.ly/2oIjU43 You can read more here about the demands regarding the EU accession to the Istanbul Convention of the European Coalition to End violence against women and girls, convened by the European Women’s Lobby. Find here a factsheet with more information on our demands. The European Coalition is a strategic alliance of more than 25 European wide NGOs and civil society networks dedicated to social justice and equality in Europe who address the issue of violence against women and girls from different angles, they have joined forces to advocate together for a meaningful signature and ratification of the Istanbul Convention by the EU and all Member States and for a meaningful EU year of focused actions against violence against women. The European Women’s Lobby and the European Coalition to end violence against women and girls were present at the latest European Parliamentary hearing on the Istanbul Convention organised by LIBE and FEMM Committee on Monday 27th March 2017. Maria Miguel Sierra, EWL Observatory on violence against women Expert from Belgium, participated at the hearing to explain what has been the policy impact that the ratification of the Istanbul Convention has had in Belgium. Furthermore, Maria highlighted the recent policy developments at EU level and the demands of the civil society organisations. You can find the programme here and watch the full EP Hearing here.

Maria de Miguel Sierra EWL Observatory expert

On Wednesday 29th March 2017, Magda de Meyer, EWL Board Member, represented the European Women’s Lobby a at the Symposium organised by Public Policy Exchange on Ending Gender-Based Violence in Europe: Implementing Strategies for Protection and Prevention. Her speech focused on the dynamics of violence against women, the situation in Europe and comprehensive strategies for prevention.

Magda De Meyer EWL Board member

“How can we implement effective prevention if we live in an environment where violence against women and degrading images of women are normalised in the media, in movies and video clips? Where women and girls’ bodies are commodified and hypersexualised in advertising and in reality through prostitution? Prevention is directly linked to legislation: we need norms and respect for these norms. We need all forms of male violence to be recognised as crimes, and impunity to prevail. Only at this condition will prevention measures work.”

You can download Magda de Meyer’s speech here. Orla O’Connor Director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) took part at the Public Policy Exchange event on Ending gender-based violence in Europe. She presented the Irish Observatory on violence against women and girls, an independent network of national and grassroots organisations working collectively on policy and legislative change with a strong feminist analysis. Orla O’Connor also presented a snapshot of violence against women in Ireland, where almost 50% of women have experienced some form of sexual harassment since age of 15. Orla O’Connor presented the Concluding Observations of CEDAW Committe, which includes a clear recommendation to criminalise domestic violence and introduce a specific definition of domestic violence and other emerging forms of gender-based violence such as online stalking and harassment. Orla O’Connor briefly presented the