Europe and the world" "
The European Parliament, meeting in plenary session on 19 November, approved a report of the Commission for women’s rights, which underlines the need for more urgent and incisive action to prevent violence against women. According to the report, “violence against women cannot be eliminated without first combating those factors that, directly or indirectly, contribute to make women so easy a target for it. A cultural legacy that places men in a position of privilege in various legal, social, economic and political sectors confers on them a power that provides a fertile terrain for the culture of physical and moral violence against women”. Since 1992 the European Union has included in all its accords with third countries a clause that prescribes respect for human rights and democracy. Council and Commission are therefore invited to include in future trade and development agreements a specific clause that provides for the application of sanctions and, if necessary, the suspension of the agreement, in the event of grave and recurrent violations of women’s rights, such as genital mutilations, mutilations with acid, publicly inflicted corporal punishment, executions, revenge attacks, stoning, rapes, traffic in women, crimes of honour, forced marriages and slavery. The Commission is lastly invited to define favourable or unfavourable commercial clauses for partner countries depending on their level of curbing violence against women.
