News
| - European Parliament Resolution on Ending Child Marriages, SRHR and the GGR |
Woman's Rights and Gender Equality
Ending child marriages
Women's empowerment, protection and promotion of sexual and reproductive health are among the measures to be taken to combat child marriages, say MEPs in a resolution adopted on Thursday. They condemn the U.S. reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule and its impact on women's and girls' health and rights.
Women's Rights and Gender Equality MEPs call on the EU and Member States to draw attention to child marriages, by focusing on women's empowerment through education, economic empowerment and participation in decision-making, as well as on the promotion of and increased access to sexual and reproductive health and rights services for women and child brides.
They also recommend unified legal standards in regard to child marriages and cooperation with third country authorities, including providing training and technical assistance on legislation prohibiting child marriage. Specific procedures must be developed to ensure the protection of refugee children and host countries should ensure full access to education. Procedures at reception centres should be put in place to identify cases of child or forced marriages, the resolution says.
The Global Gag Rule
The U.S. decision to reinstate and expand the Global Gag Rule calls for the EU and Member States to fill the financial gap left by the U.S. in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights, say MEPs, strongly condemning the decision.
The report was adopted by 16 votes to 0, with 1 abstention.
Links:
Profile of rapporteur Vilija Blinkeviciute
Audiovisual material for the media
The committee on Woman's Rights and Gender Equality
| - Working in Partnership to End Forced Marriage and Honour Based Violence |
| Central London |
| Wednesday 13th September 2017 |
Presentation Flyer Registration (word) Registration(pdf)
- United Nations General Assembly passes resolution on Child Marriage
- Orient Express, an NGO in Vienna, Austria that specialises in forced and early marriage (FEM) and has an anonymous shelter for victims of FEM, has a brochure to assist teachers in knowing what to do (and not to do) when FEM is present in the classroom : Zwangsheirat_Handlungsleitfaden_IC.pdf
- June 19-20, 2017: A presentation on the EU Fem project will be held by Prof. Dr. Yvette Vöschow and Isabelle Brantl on the topic "Kinder- und Zwangsehen als integrative Herausforderungen an die Soziale Arbeit in Europa" (Early and forced marriages as an integrative challenge for Social Work in Europe) at the Deutscher Pr&aulm;ventionstag (German Day of prevention) in Hannover.
- April 28, 2017: An oral presentation will be held by Prof. Dr. Yvette V&oulm;schow and Isabelle Brantl on the topic "Menschenrechtsverletzungen durch Zwangsehen: Konsequenzen f&uulm;r Klinische Sozialarbeit" (human rights breaches through forced marriages: consequences for the clinical Social Work) at the Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft f&uulm;r Soziale Arbeit (Annual meeting of the German Association for Social Work) in D&uulm;sseldorf.
- September 21-24, 2016 - an oral presentation was given by Prof. Dr. Yvette Völschow and Isabelle Brantl from the University of Vechta titled "Forced and Early Marriage within Europe - The relevance of gender, ethnicity and age for preventive measures" at the 16th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology in Münster, Germany. The presentation will focus on the close connection of domestic violence and FEM, which is considered a form of gender-based violence. In reviewing the data collected from interviews and existing research, the presentation will offer insight into the complex power structures surrounding this issue and preventing girls from gaining sexual agency. More information online: http://www.eurocrim2016.com/
- August 22-24, 2016 - an oral presentation was given by Prof. Dr. Yvette Völschow and Isabelle Brantl from the University of Vechta with the title "Forced and Early Marriages in Europe - a breach of human rights as a subcultural phenomenon" at the 14th Annual TiSSA Conference in Ghent, Belgium. The presentation will focus on the FEM discourse and its focus on the so-called cultural differences of migrant minorities that are being blamed for the practice. In direct referral to the conducted interviews with experts and survivors, the mentioned root causes are weighed against the public representation. More information online: http://www.tissa.net/
- 1st Technical Meeting, June 19-20, 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal - The EU FEM partners convened to review progress towards drafting the EU FEM Referral Roadmap which will be available in the fall of 2016.
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has recently published landmark documents related to multisectoral collaboration to prevent gender-based violence and an essential package for women and girls subject to violence.
'Multisectoral Response to Gender-Based Violence' provides a number of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for each sector involved in the prevention of gender-based violence.
- Towards a Multi-sectoral Response to Gender-Based Violence
- Multi-sectoral Response to GBV
- Police services provision
- Health care services provision
- Psycho-social services provision
'Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence' identifies the essential services to be provided by the health, social services, police and justice sectors as well as guidelines for the coordination of Essential Services and the governance of coordination processes and mechanisms.
Service delivery guidelines for the core elements of each essential service have been identified to ensure the delivery of high quality services, particularly for low and middle income countries for women and girls experiencing violence. Taken together, these elements comprise the ?Essential Services Package?.
The Essential Services Package comprises five overlapping modules: Access this document
- Module 1: Overview and Introduction
- Module 2: Health Essential Services
- Module 3: Justice and Policing Essential Services
- Module 4: Essential Social Services
- Module 5: Essential Actions for Coordination and Governance of Coordination
