EUROPEAN STUDY
(Brussels) According to a study conducted by the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, “acts of sexism, abuse and violence against women are actually present in European parliaments”, and these “violations of fundamental rights” need “to be addressed by parliaments and require action to be taken”. The study, presented today in Brussels in the framework of the @MeTooEP campaign by the European Parliament, is based on conversations with 123 women from 45 European countries. 81 of these women were MPs and 42 were members of the parliamentary staff. 85.2% of female MPs said that they had suffered psychological violence in the course of their term in office. 46.9% had received death threats or threats of rape or beating. 58.2% had been the target of online sexist attacks. 24.7% had suffered sexual violence. 14.8% had suffered physical violence. The perpetrators of such acts were colleagues, political opponents or ordinary citizens.
The study also shows alarming cases among parliamentary staff in Europe (40.5% of those interviewed said that they had suffered acts of harassment, and in almost 70% of cases, the perpetrators were male MPs). However, only 23.5% of female MPs and 6% of female parliamentary staff reported the incidents. In the context of the #NotInMyParliament campaign, a manifesto was launched, to be signed by candidates for the upcoming European elections, with a commitment to “actively countering and reporting acts of sexism and abuse”. The study is available at: http://website-pace.net/documents/19879/5288428/20181016-WomenParliamentIssues-EN.pdf/7d59e7c5-4a88-4d23-a6cd-7404449fd45f
