Impact of the war against Ukraine on women
25.4.2022
Question for oral answer O-000015/2022
to the Commission
Rule 136
Robert Biedroń
on behalf of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality
Since the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022, a large number of people have been forced to flee the country, with an estimated 90 % of refugees being women and children. Around 2.8 million people have fled to Poland, around 763 000 people have fled to Romania, 476 000 to Hungary and 346 000 to Slovakia, and a significant proportion of refugees are travelling onward to other Member States.
Member States, their citizens and civil society have reacted to the incoming refugees from Ukraine with unprecedented outpourings of solidarity. For the first time, the Council of the European Union triggered the Temporary Protection Directive. Nevertheless, there is an increasing number of unofficial reports from survivors and also intelligence reports about sexual violence in the conflict – that rape, sexual harassment, torture, mass executions and genocide are being used by the Russian army as weapons of war against the civilian population in Ukraine. Moreover, there are significant unofficial reports about the risks of trafficking in human beings involving refugees, particularly women and unaccompanied children, who have fallen into the hands of traffickers or are reported missing. There are also reports about women victims of rape who have managed to escape to Poland being deprived of their right to safe and legal abortion.
Given this:
- 1.What specific strategies to prevent and combat trafficking of women and children is the EU implementing in this context?
- 2.What is the Commission’s role in providing support to coordinating health services on refugees’ arrival in the EU, which ensure that women have access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health services, including emergency contraception, contraception, legal and safe abortion care, antenatal care and skilled assistance during childbirth?
- 3.What is the EU’s role in collecting evidence against war atrocities that have been committed, in particular investigating war crimes including rape?
- 4.What are the EU’s medium-term plans for managing the situation of women refugees?
Submitted: 25.4.2022
Lapses: 26.7.2022