Women with Disabilities
European Parliament resolution of 26 November 2009 on the elimination of violence against women
Please read Texts adopted from: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2009-0098+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN
Clear legal basis needed to combat violence against women
Sexual violence should be recognised as a crime by all EU Member States, and offenders should automatically be prosecuted, says Parliament in a resolution adopted on Thursday. Male violence against women, irrespective of men's age, education, income or social status, is an EU-wide structural problem and the number of female victims of gender-based violence is alarming, they add.
Parliament urges EU Member States โto recognise sexual violence and rape, including within marriage and intimate informal relationships and/or committed by male relatives, as a crime" and "to ensure that such offences result in automatic prosecutionโ.
MEPs also call on Member States to take appropriate legal measures to stop female genital mutilation (FGM). Any reference to cultural practices or traditions as a mitigating factor in cases of violence against women, "crimes of honour" and FGM should be rejected, it says, noting that FGM, crimes of honour and forced marriages also happen in the EU.
Men's violence against women is linked to unequal distribution of power between the sexes, says the resolution, adding that this violence also violates human rights and in particular the rights to life, safety, dignity, physical and mental integrity and sexual and reproductive choice and health.
Clear legal basis needed
The resolution calls for a targeted and more coherent EU policy plan to combat all forms of violence against women, as stated in the EU Roadmap for Equality between women and men. A clear legal basis should be established for combating all forms of violence against women, and the relevant national laws and policies should be improved by developing comprehensive national action plans, it adds.Free legal aid should be made available to enable female victims of gender-based violence and people-trafficking networks to assert their rights everywhere in the EU, it says.
The resolution was adopted by a show of hands.
By: European Parliament
When: 7/2/2014
