RIGHTS: Europe Celebrates International Women’s Day

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Greta Hopkins

BRUSSELS, Mar 8 2002 (IPS) - International Women’s Day was Friday celebrated in the Belgian capital, Brussels, with a flurry of activity.

Brussels, also known as the self-styled capital of Europe, is home to the institutions of the 15 nation European Union, many of the continent’s most influential decision-makers, and many more lobbyists and activists. All are keen to have their say on the rights of women, both inside and outside the EU.

International Women’s Day is an occasion marked by women’s groups around the world. The date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday.

Speaking during the celebrations, Pat Cox, the recently-elected President of the European Parliament, said that although his Parliament is not the best example of elected female representation in the world (the Swedish Parliament has 43 per cent women), it is one of the best at 32 per cent.

Cox said the day is an opportunity to call for action to uphold the rights of women in Europe and elsewhere. He cited data from the European employers lobby UNICE, which shows that domestic violence does more harm to European women between the ages of 15 and 34 than any other cause, including cancer and car accidents.

The Chairperson of the European Parliament’s Committee on women’s rights, Anna Karamanou, said: “let me stress that violation of women’s human rights has no geographical borders – it appears in all countries in the world, including the European Union. It is not restricted to any race or ethnic group, nor any culture or religion, nor to any economic, social or political system”.

She was speaking at a conference in the European Parliament entitled “Women for a Human and Non-Violent Society” organised to commemorate International Women’s Day 2002.

“Violence of women’s human rights is exercised by men who demonstrate their power, control and domination over women,” said Karamanou, a Greek Socialist Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

“However, this does not at all mean that all men are violent, but it still demonstrates the unequal and unbalanced distribution of power between woman and men. Therefore, men must also be addressed when taking actions to stop the violence,” she said.

Addressing the European Parliament, the Belgian Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Employment Laurette Onkelinx said: “It is not enough to cry about the situation of women in Afghanistan or the Maghreb. We also have to work for women’s rights here because our struggle will have repercussions elsewhere.”

For Onkelinx: “All the different forms of violence are like a jig-saw that make up a sombre picture of the situation of women in our society”. She cited a recent case in which two women and six children were killed in Belgium over a family dispute. “This case indicates to me that we weren’t able to hear those women’s calls for help,” she said.

The Belgian Minister argues that gender issues should be integrated more seriously into EU foreign policy interventions. She referred to a recent successful example concerning co-operation between the European Union and Southern Mediterranean countries. After protests on the lack of concern for women’s issues, there is now a chapter dedicated exclusively to the economic development of women in the so-called Euromed process.

Onkelinx proposes that the EU should set up a diplomatic system for monitoring the rights of women around the world. “Perhaps we could set up a pilot project for Afghanistan but the needs are everywhere,” she said.

Odile Quintin, the top EU official dealing with social affairs, cited some shocking statistics: One woman in five suffers from violence at some stage in their life in the European Union.

Quintin argues that the EU should do more to help countries outside its borders, particularly the Central and Eastern European countries that aspire to membership of the fifteen nation bloc. “These countries must be made to do more about the problem of trafficking in women before they are allowed to join,” said Quintin.

Juan Carlos Aparicio Pérez, the Spanish Minister for Social Affairs, told MEPs that Spain, the country that currently holds the six-rotating Presidency of the EU, has chosen the fight against domestic violence as one of its priorities.

“Violence against women is not an isolated problem, it has deep structural roots. It is the expression of a social order based on inequality where masculinity is seen as superior. But the International Community and the European Union sees the violation of women’s rights as a violation of human rights,” said Pérez.

The situation of women in the Middle East was also a hot issue at the conference, with several women activists invited to present their cause to European Parliamentarians.

Sonia Bamieh, Member of the Administrative Council of the General Union of Palestinian Women, said that the fact that young Palestinian women are driven to kamikaze terrorism: “means they have reached the limits of despair and we need to be very careful”. But she has a glimmer of hope when she sees peaceful Israeli women call for an “end to occupation”.

Simone Susskind-Weinberger, who works with Actions in the Mediterranean in Brussels, points out that no women have ever been involved in peace negotiations in the Middle East. “But even if women are not in a leadership role in the middle east, they do at least have an important role to play in civil society,” she told Members of the women’s rights committee of the European Parliament.

The European Parliament also invited the writer and militant for women’s rights in Egypt Nawel El Saadawi. “There are a few people that own most the world’s resources and use this to oppress people, especially women and especially children. Women are amongst the most vulnerable in society, they are the first to starve and the first to die,” she said.

El Saadawi fervently attacks religious fundamentalists: “they need god to exploit people”, she said.

But she has hopes for the influence of European diplomacy. “I am happy that Europe is coming with new power to challenge US policy in the Middle East. Europe was a colonising power in the past, but now it can be a liberating power,” said El Saadawi.

Also in homage to international women’s day, the reproductive health non-governmental organisation Marie Stopes International (MSI), decided to hold the European launch of its compact guide to reproductive health issues in the developing world: “Reproductive health – The briefing pack”. The pack brings together the latest policy, facts and case studies from around the world and is designed for parliamentarians, policy-makers and agencies.

At the launch in Brussels, Patricia Hindmarsh, Director of External Relations at MSI said: “On International Women’s day, it is important to remember that reproductive health issues concern both women and men. This pack in effect goes towards the empowerment of women and men in the right to have their families through choice not by chance”.

Hindmarsh said that although opponents to family planning can have an impact at international level, MSI rarely comes across difficulties when working at grass-roots level in developing countries. “People that come to our clinic are in fact grateful for a good service, and that is what we have to try and get across to policy-makers and funding bodies,” she said.