5.8.2010   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 212/32

A.

whereas the realisation of women’s human rights, women’s empowerment and agency is not only important for addressing gender inequality and implementing a true gender dimension in the EU’s external relations but essential to the successful implementation of the EU’s external policies, including in the areas of aid, development, enlargement, neighbourhood policy, conflict resolution, security and peace-building and international trade,

B.

whereas although the Member States are party to all major international frameworks on gender equality and women’s rights, and although a number of policy documents exist at the EU level, the practical commitment to furthering gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment in external policies is still weak, the implementation of the existing policy documents is modest and the budgetary resources earmarked specifically for gender issues are insufficient,

C.

whereas despite considerable improvements in the promotion of gender equality over the recent years, the main EU institutions – that is to say, Parliament, the Council and the Commission – do not have enough staff appointed specifically to implement the declared gender objectives in the areas of external policy and enlargement, and most of the existing staff responsible for gender issues have to combine that activity with at least one, and sometimes two, other sets of duties,

D.

whereas the EU needs a holistic and coherent approach to gender mainstreaming,

1.

Recognises that the EU institutions have attached increasing importance to gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment but underlines that much remains to be done to put the political commitments into practice, and stresses the importance of adequate funding and of adequate staff responsible for implementing gender objectives;

2.

Recalls that gender mainstreaming requires not only high-level policy statements but also the political will of the EU and the Member States’ leadership, prioritisation of objectives and monitoring of the progress made;

3.

Welcomes the adoption of the above-mentioned ‘Comprehensive approach to the EU implementation of the UNSCR 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008) on women, peace and security’, as well as the adoption by the General Affairs Council of 8 December 2008 of the guidelines on violence against women and girls and combating all forms of discrimination against them; calls on those Member States which have not yet adopted their national action plans on UNSCR 1325 to comply as a matter of urgency with the request by the Security Council that the States do so; invites the Commission to provide technical assistance and aid to third countries willing to develop national strategies for the implementation of the above-mentioned Security Council resolutions;

4.

Is pleased that the revised text of the European Security Strategy includes a reference to the above-mentioned Security Council Resolutions S/RES/1325 (2000) and S/RES/1820 (2008), as well as Resolution S/RES/1612(2005);

5.

Calls on the Commission to speed up its work and to propose by July 2009, in close cooperation with the Member States and the Council Secretariat, an ‘EU Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in EU External Action’, to be applied in the 27 Member States and in negotiations with third countries, together with a set of effective monitoring instruments;

6.

Calls on the Council and the Commission to systematically include gender equality and women’s empowerment in the EU’s political dialogue and policy discussions with partner countries;

7.

Asks Parliament’s delegations to address the issues related to gender equality and women’s empowerment in its relations with third-country parliaments; underlines the importance of providing support and assistance to national parliaments of third countries, with a view to strengthening their capacity to introduce the gender perspective into their legislative work;

8.

Underlines the importance of civil society organisations in women’s empowerment; calls on the Commission to channel adequate financial support to them and to promote the participation of women’s non-governmental organisations in political dialogue processes with partner countries, as well as in peace negotiations around the world;

9.

Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote coherence in their policy approach relating to gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment; asks that the existing diverse policy frameworks in this field be collated into an EU Consensus on Gender, covering both internal and external policies;

10.

Encourages the regular holding of conferences to debate issues relating to equal opportunities for women and men, with the participation of delegations at the national parliament level, made up of both women and men, together with the establishment of common strategies to implement projects relating to this topic;

11.

Asks the Commission to address and prioritise, in a more consistent and systematic manner, gender inequalities in the programming and implementation of the external assistance instruments, in particular as regards the provision of assistance for the reform of the security sector; insists that gender-specific objectives, activities and funding must be included in country strategy papers and that mainstreaming of gender issues through those strategy papers must be improved; underlines the need for a holistic approach in the use of external assistance instruments, including the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, the European Neighbourhood Policy Instrument, the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, the Instrument for Stability and thematic programmes such as ‘Investing in People’, in order optimally to achieve the goals of gender equality and women’s empowerment;

12.

Considers that the resources allocated to the health sector, and consequently to girls’ and women’s health, are insufficient in view of the EU’s development policy commitments; underlines the need to earmark further financial resources under the external assistance instruments for women’s health programmes; points out that, according to the Court of Auditors’ Special Report on EC Development Assistance to Health Services in sub-Saharan Africa, published in January 2009, allocations to the health sector for that region have not increased since 2000 as a proportion of total EC assistance for health, while the Millennium Development Goals 2007 Progress Chart still identifies very high levels of maternal mortality there;

13.

Points out that effective gender mainstreaming requires enhanced coordination between donors and actors, accountability mechanisms and increased ownership of the development process by national governments; highlights in this regard the added value of the EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace, and of gender-responsive budgeting initiatives; welcomes the setting-up of a task force on women, peace and security as provided for in the above-mentioned comprehensive approach to the EU implementation of Security Council Resolutions S/RES1325 (2000) and S/RES/1820 (2008);

14.

Reiterates the need to focus not only on women but also on gender relations between men and women that generate and perpetuate gender inequalities; believes that, as a consequence, projects should take into consideration both men and women;

15.

Stresses that the EU should pay special attention to the needs of the most vulnerable and socially excluded women, in particular disabled women, refugees and women from minority groups;

16.

Calls on the Commission to further develop procedures, benchmarks and indicators in order to ensure that it fulfils its commitments with regard to gender equality in its external policy;

17.

Considers that the European Institute on Gender Equality, established in 2006, should become operational as soon as possible and that its mandate should be extended to external policies;

18.

Calls on the Commission and the Member States to implement the ‘Brussels Call for Action to Address Sexual Violence in Conflict and Beyond’;

19.

Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take action to prevent and combat trafficking in human beings;

20.

Underlines that rape and sexual violence are used as a weapon of war; stresses that they should be punished as war crimes and crimes against humanity; calls for more support programmes for victims of these crimes;

21.

Underlines the need to capitalise on the EU’s partnership with the UN, drawing on the latter’s global expertise in advancing gender equality and empowerment of women, with a view to enhancing the effectiveness and impact of EU policies and aid, and to ensure coherence of external support for partner countries to help them fulfil their relevant obligations;

22.

Considers that the number of personnel currently working on gender issues within the Council and the Commission is inadequate; calls on those institutions to allocate more staff to the structures in charge of the EU’s external action with specific responsibility for gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment;

23.

Notes the continued lack of women in high-level posts within the Council and the Commission, and calls, in particular, for greater efforts to boost the number of women among the heads of EU delegations and the EU Special Representatives; stresses that the future External Action Service should have a better balance of men and women, particularly as regards high-level posts, and that it should include more staff responsible for gender issues;

24.

Calls on the Member States to include more women in ESDP missions and operations, and asks that the participation of women at all levels and in all phases of the planning and implementation be increased; underlines the need to include gender expertise from the very start of the planning of a mission or operation, as well as the importance of systematic and substantial gender training prior to the deployment of staff in missions and operations;

25.

Notes that a great deal of effort is currently being made to mainstream a gender-sensitive approach into the culture of the ESDP, inter alia by developing the quantitative dimension of gender mainstreaming within that policy (e.g. through questionnaires, the development of check-lists, counting the number of men and women in ESDP operations, etc); however, stresses the need to develop the qualitative conceptual framework required in order to understand the socio-economic context in which ESDP missions are deployed (i.e. areas of conflict) and gender-sensitive concerns in the implementation of operations and programmes;

26.

Welcomes the appointment of a gender adviser to nearly all ESDP missions, in line with the above-mentioned Council conclusions of November 2006; nevertheless emphasises that the work of such gender advisers may be undermined by the lack of a concrete EU gender policy – in particular, a lack of gender awareness and/or an unwillingness to consider its importance – and the lack of gender-specific budget lines in the financing of ESDP missions;

27.

Commends the initiatives to provide gender-related training to staff deployed on ESDP missions and in the corresponding headquarters, and the considerable effort made by the Commission to train its staff, particularly within delegations; reiterates that all staff at every level of the planning, programming and implementation of the EU’s external policies should be adequately trained; asks the Commission and the Member States to ensure that compulsory training is provided for all staff in missions and delegations, including the management, and that they are given guidance on gender issues and women’s empowerment;

28.

Is convinced that ESDP mission planning should take account of the inclusion of local women’s organisations in the peace process, so as to build on the specific contribution which they can make and to recognise the particular ways in which women are affected by conflicts;

29.

Stresses that, currently, quotas are an indispensable means of ensuring gender equality in peace and security missions and in decision-making in national and international reconstruction processes, and of guaranteeing the political presence of women at the negotiating table;

30.

Underlines the importance of gender-sensitive budgeting; points out that gender should be developed as a thematic issue in major external assistance instruments, that special appropriations should be earmarked for gender issues and that benchmarks should be defined in order to measure how efficiently the funds provided are being used;

31.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.