Harmonization of Gender Equality Mechanisms

Esteemed assembly,Ladies and gentlemen,

Firstly please allow me to congratulate and say thank you to our Turkish friends for organizing such an important conference.I am honored to take and be part of it. So thank you.

Before saying a few words about our today's important topic as the membership of Turkey was raised several times yesterday, I should mention that Romania is supporting Turkey for its membership to EU and if we can be of any help giving our own experience with the EU accession you could count on us. In fact just a few weeks ago my Prime Miniater visited Turkey reafirming the good relationships that exists between our countries.

I am here today as a representative of the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe and as a member of the Sub-Committee on Gender Equality for the PACE, but first and foremost I am speaking to you as o member of the Romanian Parliament and as a politician preocupied for many years with the policies for equal opportunities, women and children.

I would first like to tell you, in a brief manner, how gender equality, and all that derives from this fundamental set of principals is impacting Romanian society, Romanian legislation, and the general view that the government administration has over the concept of equal opportunities for all.

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Romania has undergone many changes in the last few years in the way both institutions and civil society work on creating a true gender equal system. A few months ago, in my capacity as a MP for reference for European Council for its campaign regarding the violence agains women, I was advocating and promote the necessity for Romania to start the process of signing and ratification of the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence as I storngly believe that along with other states, Romania has to tackle head on one of the most devastating problems women in the region have had for many years: violence, on all forms from physical to mental, emotional and economical violence, against women. As our Turkish friends know Romania was directly involved in drafting the Istanbul Convention and I am proud to report today that officially Romania started the process of signing the Istanbul Convention…and as I believe we are the 10th

Country from EU, if we sign and ratify it, it will be enacted at all EU states.

By way of background I should mention that in the spring of 2011 Romania has approved o specific law that protects women from any and all acts of domestic violence. We can now say that we have the right legal framework that allows us to better protect women against domestic violence.

Law now allows the victims of domestic violence to ask the courts for a restraining order (or protection) against the aggressor. Among major changes I should mention that according to this law the violence it includes not only physical acts but also acts of verbal, psychological, sexual, social and spiritual violence; the authorities are now being

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forced to respond urgently to cases of domestic violence. The victim has the right to a private life, dignity and respect of personality, social protection, reintegration, free social assistance and medical assistance.

I am very proud that at on Nov 25, the Committee for European Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies, to which I am Secretary, will organize in Bucharest, together with the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Regional Conference -"Istanbul Convention - on the way to ratification" - as part of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

It is my personal belief that there is still more to do concerning the causes and effects of domestic violence in EU and my part of the world.

As a Contact Point for the Council of Europe for the campaign against violence on women, I discussed several times with the members of the Government to reveal all the benefits of signing the Istanbul Convention and to identify the ways to enhance its impact to the Romanian Society and I have to say that the results of my actions are encouraging. Hence I plan to continue to address these issues employing the help of all international organizations be it EU, UN or international NGOs.

Thinking that gender equality is one of the basic principles of the EU, and one that has to find itself deep within the Romanian legislation, I made it as one of my priority for this legislative year to initialize a major piece of legislation that provides the requirements for Romanian

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institutions to work together toward creating and ensuring a gender equal climate, especially concerning EU principles such as equal pay for equal value work, economical independence for women and equal employment opportunities for both men and women.

I am happy to report that this particular piece of legislation has been passed by the first Chamber of Parliament, the Senate, and is now undergoing the legislative process within the decisive Chamber of Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, of which I myself am a member. And in the last 2 days has been positively approved by 2 comissions in rhe Deputy Chamber...so I am confident that by the end of this year this major piece of legislation that I initiated and is being supported by more than 80 MP s from all political parties will be entering into effect. And we yesterday we were talking about how more women should be given a chance to either run for an office or assume a more leadership role I should tell you how I got many of my colleagues to sign and support this piece of legislation: I was telling them that if they will not sign it and vote it I will go to the districts where they are MPs and I will make it clear that they do not support equal opportunities…..and I will like to see if they will take the chance of either to upset the women voters and women party members and supporters (as they will campaign by themselves and will lose!!!).

I strongly believe that legislative change is the first step towards a united front against any form of gender discrimination, being that domestic violence, sexual exploitation or harassment, unequal pay or unequal education opportunities.

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The second step is the implementation part of the legislation which takes more time and effort and can encounter serious social resistance.

It is encouraging to see that many European countries, such as Romania, are changing the way they approach gender equality through legislation and harmonized regional gender equality mechanisms. But sadly, this is not enough.

I think that one of the most important actions we must take, as a common force, is a coordinated effort of public communication that targets the vulnerable categories, especially women. It is my opinion that we have to fight in order to tell women, especially those who live in the rural areas, what their rights are, what their opportunities are, and what new legislation can do to improve their way of life.

We need to create strong institutions that can easily collaborate in order to react to gender discrimination, we need also to take efforts to educate women at very young ages on what their rights are only then they will become empowered, strong and equalWe have to hold in mind that without action, legislation can only do so much. I appreciate that we need to collaborate more often through symposiums and round tables such as the one is taking place today if we want to implement a common solution to a common problem.

Gender inequality is far from being eradicated, a large percentage of violence as a whole is still perpetuated towards women, and there are still considerable amounts of wage differences, for the same work value. All these challenges that we face, including the need to efficiently communicate women’s rights concerning gender equality are being addressed by European legislation and by national

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legislations around Europe not unlike the law project I initiated come this spring.

If you allow me a brief summary of some important EU initiatives showing commitment to promoting equal opportunities and no patience or marsey for any form of violence, where all key EU players shared a common approach, recognizing violence against women as a violation of human rights and an obstacle to gender equality.

1. The Directive on minimum standards for victims of crime was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council. (that must be implemented at national level by 16 November 2015 at the latest).

2. The Regulation on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters - is still under negotiation between the Council and the European Parliament.

3. At UN level, the General Assembly adopted a resolution at the end of 2012 on ‘Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women’. In this line on 8 March Romania promulgated the changes made to law 217/2003 on preventing and combating domestic violence,

4. Towards the eradication of trafficking in human beings - the ‘EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings (2012-2016).

5. Violence against women: I want to mention the fruitful activity developed during Cypriot Presidency in this field :

a. The Conference in November 2012 which provides the first report to deliver a full set of comparable and reliable data on support services for women

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victims of violence in the 27 EU Member States and Croatia.

b. On 6 December 2012 EPSCO Council adopted conclusions on Combating Violence Against Women and the Provision of Support Services for Victims of Domestic Violence in order to review the

c. The Directive 2012/29/EU established a minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of crime as well as the European protection order in civil matters.

And of course the Istanbul Convention.

One may say that gender equality can only exist if both genders are able to share power and influence as well as to gain individual independence by its own work and revenue.

Access to education and opportunities to valorize personal gifts and talents is also important.

Education, as discussed yesterday is the key and as my grandmother used to tell me, a girl from a village who rise to be accepted to the top law schools in the world: what you have in your head and in your heart nobody can take it away from you!

Sharing responsibility with regard to children rising and homework is often an underrated behavior for a long-lasting equal opportunities framework. In this picture there is no place for violence, intimidation, constraint or coercion.

To summarize, I am certain that gaps between genders will continuously decrease if we work together to build a

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common public policy concerning a transnational issue, such as gender discrimination of all kinds.

European legislation must be quickly, efficiently and uniformly implemented by national parliaments and thus all European women will be able to benefit from the common principle and the fundamental right that the EU holds high: Equality between men and women.

Thank you for listening, Ana BirchallMEP

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