V-Day European Parliament 2012 - A Call to Political Action

Over the past years, the EU made numerous commitments to end violence against women. Still, the extent and impact of violence against women, in Europe and beyond, remains staggering compared to the few concrete actions that have actually been taken to end it.

Two days before International Women's Day, on 6 March 2012, nine Members of the European Parliament will perform "The Vagina Monologues" at the Yehudi Menuhin Space, bringing home the message that violence against women is unacceptable, that it can and must be stopped.

This cross-party initiative calls on EU decision makers to:

• Honour existing commitments and devise a European Strategy for preventing and combating violence against women¹ which will include appropriate accountability mechanisms;
• Sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence² (the EU as well as all Member States);
• Ensure that the Rights and Citizenship Programme 2014-2020 will include ending violence against women and girls as a specific objective;
• Ensure appropriate funding for programmes and measures to end violence against women and girls under the EU's multi annual funding framework 2014 to 2020 and introduce gender budgeting³ throughout all funds;
• Ensure that the EU "victims package⁴" includes specific provisions regarding violence against women
• Implement the 2008 "EU guidelines on violence against women and girls and combating all forms of discrimination against them⁵" and existing Council commitments with regard to the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820⁶ which address violence against woment in armed conflict;
• Implement the EP reports on priorities and outline of a new EU policy framework to fight violence against women⁷ (March 2011) and on the Daphne programme: achievements and future prospects⁸ (January 2012)
• Consider the European Women's Lobby's call for a European Year to End Violence Against Women⁹

---

¹ As called for in the Council conclusions on the Eradication of Violence Against Women in the European Union of March 2010 - http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/lsa/113... - and the European Commission's Action Plan implementing the Stockholm Programme - http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0171:FIN:....
² http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/HTML/DomesticViolence.htm
³ "Gender budgeting aims at analysing any form of public expenditure and income from a gender perspective, i.e. it identifies the different implications that public income and spending have on girls and women, as well as different groups of women, as compared to boys and men. The final objective of gender budgeting is to shape budgets so that they actively promote gender equality." (Gender Budgeting - An Overview by the European Women's Lobby, 2004)
⁴ http://ec.europa.eu/justice/criminal/victims/index_en.htm
⁵ http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/16173cor.en08.pdf
⁶ Council note to delegations on a "Comprehensive approach to the EU implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820 on women, peace and security" (1 December 2008 - http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/hr/news187.pdf); "Indicators for the Comprehensive approach to the EU implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820 on women, peace and security" (14 July 2010 - http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/hr/news272.pdf)
⁷ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A7-2...
⁸ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+REPO...
⁹ http://www.womenlobby.org/spip.php?article1594