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Council of the European Union
Council conclusions on the Millennium Development Goals for the United Nations High-Level Plenary meeting in New York and beyond
14 June 2010
The Council put forth the EU common position on the Millennium Development Goals in preparation for the UN review meeting in September 2010 in New York. The END FGM European Campaign and the partner organisations wrote to and met with the relevant national and European officials prior to the Council meeting to address human rights violations like female genital mutilation and violence against women as a possible factor in the lack of progress on several MDGs, particularly MDG 3 (Gender Equality), MDG 4 (Child Mortality), MDG 5 (Maternal Health) and MDG 6 (HIV/AIDS).
The Council's conclusions on the MDGs, while not including violence against women, do show strong support and commitment to women’s empowerment and gender equality.
- Read the Council conclusions on the MDGs here
- Find out how human rights violations like FGM affect progress on achievement of MDGs here
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EPSCO council stands strongly against violence against women
8 March 2010
On International Women’s Day the EU’s Employment and Social Committee Council (EPSCO) agreed on setting up a European observatory to analyse violence against women, a special EU helpline, free-of-charge, to provide information and aid to the victims of violence against women, and also decided to launch a permanent awareness-raising campaign throughout the EU.
Bibiana Aido Almagro, Spanish Equality Minister and representative of the Spanish presidency said that the EU Member States need common indicators, reliable data, statistics, reports on violence against women so that Member States can come up with tools to combat this effectively. In the Council conclusions, she noted the inclusion of all forms of violence against women, including harmful traditional practices like FGM.
Viviane Reding, Vice President of European Commission, said that she had taken note of the Council's request for an EU strategy to be prepared to tackle violence against women and taking account of the specific situation facing young girls and vulnerable women, including victims of genital mutilation and the Commission therefore welcomed the Member States' support in the drawing up of an action plan.
Commissioner Reding continued to state that the Commission and the Member States had to make sure that violence against women and the fight to put an end to the genital mutilation of women is part of the EU's development policy because this is not an issue that can be dealt with solely from the viewpoint of women's issues or women's policies but should be dealt with across the board by all ministers, all Commissioners and all governments.
END FGM European Campaign welcomes the declarations of the EPSCO council on occasion of International Women’s Day. The EU ministers made strong statements to prevent violence against women and referred specifically to the issue of female genital mutilation within the framework of violence against women.
In particular, they called for:
- Member States to “identify and remedy any shortcomings in the protection of women who are victims of violence in any form, including female genital mutilation, and violence and oppression in the name of so-called honour; and ensure that there is no justification of violence on the grounds of customs, traditions or religious considerations”
- “An international approach in the exchange of knowledge, policies and best practices, within the EU and with non-EU countries that have experience in fighting harmful traditional practices (such as female genital mutilation) and trafficking in human beings, is essential, as this can contribute to the prevention and eradication of these forms of violence in Europe.”
BACKGROUND:
END FGM European Campaign and Federation of Somali Associations of Netherlands (FSAN) had issued a joint letter with Dutch MEP Emine Bozkurt to Spanish Minister for Equality Bibiana Aido and the Dutch Minister Donner to ensure that the European Observatory on violence against women establishes data on prevalence of FGM in the EU.
