Politics and society
(Strasbourg) The Council of Europe steps up its fight against sexism, that is, against all those attitudes, behaviours and gestures that discriminate against people because of their sex: from aggressive jokes on the streets, to comments on the look and clothing of women in politics, to stereotyped images and games… Last March, the Council adopted a Recommendation on preventing and combating sexism. Today, it launched a video and a website to raise awareness of and shed light on this attitude which is “harmful and lies at the root of gender inequality”, since it affects women and girls disproportionately. “No-one should be discriminated against because of their sex. This is a basic principle which we are still far from respecting in practice”, Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland said. For this reason, “the Council of Europe wants to help ensure a level playing field for women and men, boys and girls”. “See it. Name it. Stop it.” is the slogan of the campaign #stopsexism, whose aim is to help the wider public “identify” acts of sexism and “take a stand against them”.