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One hundred years after women won the vote or were first elected to parliament in some EU countries, the data show that women continue to be under-represented in politics and public life, in the European Parliament, but also in national parliaments, governments and local assemblies. The arguments for gender balance in politics are numerous. It benefits not only women and female politicians, but also political parties themselves and the rest of society. After all, women form half the population and ...

This year, International Women's Day is being celebrated in the context of Russia's war in Ukraine. By threatening energy shortages, the conflict has exacerbated the inflationary effects of the post-pandemic recovery, leading to a cost-of-living crisis in Europe. Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) is marking the day with a meeting with national parliaments on 1 March 2023. On the agenda: the impact of rising energy prices on women and potential measures to mitigate ...

Corruption, and particularly grand corruption relating to government officials, has a harmful effect on democracy, the rule of law, human rights, security, the eradication of poverty, and sustainable development, all objectives of the EU's external action. Corruption in third countries can also affect the functioning of EU democracy with flows of money buying political influence in the EU. In her 2022 State of the Union address, the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed to ...

On 25 January 2023, the Committees on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) and Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) jointly adopted, by a substantial majority, their interim report on EU accession to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). The report calls for swift European Union (EU) ratification, noting that the 2021 opinion of the European Court of Justice enables EU accession even in the ...

The creation of the African Union (AU) in 2002 sparked hopes for a new era in African integration that would put an end to the most egregious violations of human rights and democratic norms that have plagued the region since its countries achieved independence. To fulfil this mission, the AU was endowed with broader competences and new institutional mechanisms. More and more African countries have ratified new and existing continental human rights and governance treaties, but AU members have adhered ...

Human rights are under severe threat around the world. This is due to several factors, including the rise of authoritarianism, the COVID-19 pandemic, deepening economic inequalities, and conflicts that take an ever-higher human toll. Even more alarmingly, human rights violations are taking place in a climate of rising impunity. Tackling impunity globally is therefore becoming an urgent task. In June 2022, EPRS – together with two non-governmental organisations, Fight Impunity and No Peace Without ...

For two decades, the EU has sought to modernise its preferential trade relationship with the sub-Saharan African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and establish free trade areas with regional groupings under so-called economic partnership agreements (EPAs). The process of establishing the EPAs has been longer and more complicated than initially expected, encountering criticism and opposition from civil society and some governments in ACP countries, who have been worried about the potential negative ...

There is a broad consensus about the deterioration of democracy and human rights across the world due, among other things, to growing authoritarianism, the coronavirus pandemic, deepening economic inequalities, new trends in artificial intelligence, and increasingly severe conflicts. This deterioration has taken place amidst rising impunity, i.e. the impossibility of bringing the perpetrators of violations to account. Tackling impunity globally is therefore an urgent task, as highlighted in several ...

Since 2017, a destabilising Islamist insurgency against Mozambican government forces and the local population has ravaged the gas-rich northern province of Cabo Delgado. After the national army proved relatively ineffective in dealing with the insurgency, the government asked external partners, including the EU, for support. With the combined help of Rwandan troops and a regional military mission, the insurgency has been considerably weakened, yet continues to pose a threat both to the local population ...

This is the fifth Peace and Security Outlook produced by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS). The series analyses and explains the European Union's contribution to the promotion of peace and security internationally, through its various external policies. The study provides an overview of the issues and current state of play. It looks first at the concept of peace and the changing nature of the geopolitical environment as European security faces the most tangible military threat since ...