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Thirty years ago, the international community adopted the Beijing Declaration and its accompanying Platform for Action – a broad and ambitious global agenda for action with women's rights at its core. Since then, women's rights have enjoyed increased recognition, but also faced strong contestation. The EU remains a strong defender of women's rights. To guide its action, the Commission is soon to propose a roadmap on women's rights in the EU, while the European Parliament has called for an EU charter ...

During its December 2024 plenary session, Parliament is expected to vote on a draft recommendation to the Council on the EU priorities for the 69th session of the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW). The UNCSW's annual session, due to take place in March 2025 in New York, will evaluate progress made on implementing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted 30 years ago.

The rise of digital technologies represents a double-edged sword for women's rights. On the one hand, the digital environment has enabled women to build networks and spread awareness about the abuse they suffer, such as through the #Metoo movement. On the other, it has provided abusers and misogynists with new tools with which they can spread their harmful content on an unprecedented scale. With the development of artificial intelligence, these trends, both positive and negative, are expected to ...

Since its creation in the 1950s, the European Economic Community, and today's European Union, has had the power to promote equality between women and men, initially in employment and later also in other areas of life. EU action has driven significant progress, even if disparities persist in many areas. To secure this progress, the EU has enabled Member States to implement positive action measures in favour of women and has adopted ground-breaking legislative and non-legislative measures, such as ...

On 25 November, Parliament will hold a plenary debate to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Seven years after the first #MeToo revelations, shocking cases of severe physical and sexual violence against women continue to come to light. The European Union (EU) has mobilised both legislative and non-legislative tools to address this social scourge.

Hadja Lahbib a member of the Mouvement reformateur (MR) party, which sits with the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, has been serving as Belgian minister for foreign affairs, European affairs and foreign trade, and federal cultural institutions since 2022. She was elected as a member of the Parliament of the Brussels Capital Region in 2024 but is currently on leave to fulfil her ministerial duties. Before joining the Belgian government, she co-led the Brussels bid for the title of European ...

Several EU directives dealing with equality require EU Member States to establish equality bodies to assist victims of discrimination and to fight discrimination more broadly. However, their rules are general and do not define these bodies' duties and operation, leading to disparities among Member States. Additionally, some Member States' bodies have experienced a lack of resources, limited independence or a narrow remit. To address this situation, in December 2022 the European Commission published ...

Several EU directives dealing with equality require EU Member States to establish equality bodies with a focus on assisting victims of discrimination and preventing and fighting discrimination more broadly. However, their rules are too general with regard to these bodies' duties and manner of operation, leading to disparities among Member States. Additionally, the work of some bodies has been hampered by lack of resources, insufficient independence or a narrow remit. As part of a package of legislative ...

Violence directed against a woman because she is a woman, or that affects women disproportionately ('gender-based violence against women') is a violation of fundamental rights, and a major obstacle to gender equality in all EU Member States. Despite increased attention, national legislation does not offer equal protection for women against all forms of gender-based violence across the EU, and there are significant gaps in the measures adopted at EU level. On 8 March 2022, the European Commission ...

In March 2022, the Commission proposed a directive to combat violence against women and domestic violence in the EU, and the co-legislators agreed on a compromise text in early 2024. Parliament is set to vote on the text during its April II part-session. The new directive would set minimum standards for criminalising severe forms of violence and for enhancing prevention, access to justice and protection of victims.