Proposition 54K1725

Proposition de résolution visant à promouvoir la prévention et la lutte contre les violences faites aux femmes, notamment par la ratification et l'universalisation de la Convention du Conseil de l'Europe sur la prévention et la lutte contre la violence à l'égard des femmes et la violence domestique, faite à Istanbul le 11 mai 2011.

General information ¶

Authors

CD&V Els Van Hoof
MR Olivier Chastel, Jean-Jacques Flahaux, Kattrin Jadin, Françoise Schepmans, Sybille de Coster-Bauchau
N-VA An Capoen
Open Vld Nele Lijnen

Submission date

March 18, 2016

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

FAO violence domestic violence resolution of parliament women's rights sexual violence woman

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP DéFI ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR PVDA | PTB PP VB

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

Jan. 26, 2017 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I believe that those of you who have contributed to the debate and to the unanimous vote in favour of Mr Jadin’s excellent proposal for a resolution will be happy to share their views. It is therefore logical that they can express themselves fully and I think it is better to refer to my written report.

Mr. Speaker, dear colleagues, as I recently announced during the oral questions, it happens – this is a good surprise – that we can vote resolutions unanimously, that we can agree on fundamental principles. And the debates we conducted in the Foreign Affairs Committee on the resolution proposed to you this afternoon testify to this.

The fight against domestic violence is not the task of a single political group. The proof of this is that we were able to vote this resolution unanimously, which I welcome. It is also not the monopoly of a community of women who would defend one of them. Every citizen, every political or associative leader must be sensitive to this evil that plagues all societies, developed or not, rich or poor.

Domestic violence has no economic, social, geographical, cultural or religious boundaries. It strikes without discernment women who believed they could find, within a couple, a family or a household, the sweetness of living, the quietness of feelings and the love of a spouse or who, as a result of a separation, suffer the harassment of their former spouse.

According to estimates from the World Health Organization, 35% of women, or ⁇ one in three women, report having been exposed to physical and sexual violence by their intimate partner or someone else, during their lifetime. On average, 30 percent of women who have had a couple relationship report having experienced some form of physical and sexual violence from their partner. Globally, up to 38% of women’s murders result from intimate relationships with their male partner.

Faced with this reality, the Council of Europe drafted the Istanbul Convention which was adopted, I recall, on 7 April 2011 and of which Belgium deposited its instrument of ratification in the spring of 2016.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind you in a few words of the importance of this Convention and therefore of the meaning of the resolution that we are going to adopt today. Violence against women is defined by Article 3 of the Convention as “any violence committed against a woman because she is a woman or disproportionately affecting women”; but also through other articles: physical or psychological violence, including harassment, sexual violence including sexual assault, rape and harassment, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, abortion or forced sterilization, so-called crimes of honour, generally committed against female members of a family or a community and considered to have violated common rules, in particular on sexual behavior.

Domestic violence refers to domestic or domestic violence between former or current spouses or partners. I would like to clarify, Mr. Speaker, that the Istanbul Convention also considers domestic violence against men.

Several texts had already been adopted within the framework of the United Nations, including the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, but without binding scope. On the regional level, however, there are several binding texts, such as the Protocol to the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights, on the Rights of Women in Africa.

What makes the Istanbul Convention peculiar is its potentially universal scope. It is known that it is open to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan and the Vatican, which have participated in its drafting, but any other state can join it with the agreement of the parties.

We know, I just reminded, that other countries are preparing to legalize domestic violence. We should be ⁇ concerned about this. I think this will strengthen the action that has taken place this afternoon.

We must promote this text in other countries: our neighbors of the European Union, our partners in development cooperation, the states we join in the Geneva Human Rights Council or in diplomatic contacts for an election to the Security Council.

The importance of the Istanbul Convention is great. First, it deals with violence against women and domestic violence in all its dimensions. Second, it details several types of responses: including prevention, by combating retrograde mentalities that cultivate tolerance to these practices or maintain a denial of them; protection of victims and the help they need; combating impunity – the latter being a second violence inflicted on victims. Third, the Convention also emphasizes the need to regularly collect data and support research in order to better assess the extent, forms and evolution of violence.

Dear colleagues, these are the reasons that lead me to believe that the universality of this Convention represents for our diplomacy a praiseworthy, necessary and noble goal. Violence against women takes very varied forms. In some countries, they are tolerated and even excused in the name of cultural or religious values.

The universality of the Istanbul Convention will raise our level of ambition to combat any manifestation of such violence. I am convinced that our Prime Minister and our Minister of Foreign Affairs will take advantage of their bilateral exchanges to promote this Convention to States that are not yet parties to it. This is the heart and spirit of this resolution. A unanimous vote will ⁇ give it all its political weight.

I thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I will keep it very brief, as most of it has already been said by Mr Jadin.

The N-VA group wants to emphasize that violence against women is a violation of human rights. The defense of human rights is one of the priorities of our diplomacy. The defense of women’s rights and the fight against gender-based violence is therefore a fundamental part of this.

Our country plays a leading role in the fight against gender-based violence. One of the best examples of this is the National Action Plan of Secretary of State Sleurs. Now that Belgium is also a member of the UN Human Rights Council, we need to spread this message as strongly as possible.

This resolution aims to stimulate the global fight against gender-based violence. We urge the Government to call on the countries of the Council of Europe to ratify the Convention, so that the Istanbul Convention becomes a universal instrument in the fight against violence, because any impunity of violence against women is unacceptable, whether committed by the State, civilians, or non-state actors, both within and outside the family and marriage.

The Istanbul Convention is the most comprehensive and advanced set of international standards for combating violence against women and domestic violence. It is the first legally binding instrument at European level, covering various areas including prevention, protection and support, material law, procedural law, immigration, and international cooperation.

It was ratified by the Assembly last November. On that occasion, we had widely welcomed this important progress. The promotion of its ratification and universalization can therefore only be supported. Thus I am convinced of the importance, as my colleague Ms. Jadin has just mentioned, of the second request of this text, which provides for the taking of the necessary diplomatic measures to promote this Convention to States not members of the Council of Europe and to make it a universal instrument. My group has been and will continue to be the initiator of various texts on the importance of the gender dimension, women’s rights and sexual and reproductive rights. These rights know no borders. I think of the texts adopted by our assembly on sexual and reproductive rights or on the fight against early and forced marriages.

However, and we talked about it earlier, the news sadly reminds us that nothing is ever acquired, when we see, for example, that one of the first acts of Donald Trump, the newly-invested president of the world’s first power, was to violently attack abortion. Unfortunately, I am afraid that this is only the beginning. It will be up to the Belgian diplomacy to remain inflexible in this matter and to fight against the disastrous repercussions such medieval and conservative positions may have on women’s rights and access to health and sexual and reproductive rights in Europe and around the world.

I would like to welcome Minister De Croo’s commitment, once unusual, to fight against this backward vision of the U.S. president.

At the Belgian level, as we have already had the opportunity to say, progress is obviously still to be made both in the fight against violence against women and in the fight against discrimination. As you know, the two are closely linked. We continue to regularly question Sleurs on these key issues, considering that the government is unfortunately largely lacking in ambition in this matter and that concrete actions are still to be expected despite the commitments.

Fortunately, despite this, our country is not a bad student in the fight against violence against women. It is clear that we have a role to play on the international stage in improving, through bilateral and multilateral contacts, the situation and legislation of States where efforts in this regard can and must still be made.

This proposal, therefore, seems to go in the right direction and we will therefore support it.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, Mrs. Secretary of State, Dear colleagues, I am pleased that this resolution is carried out so widely, across all parties. It is proof that violence against women is a challenge that is taken seriously by many, a sign that at least in this country the pursuit of a non-violent and just society has not been overlooked.

I therefore hope that the recommendations contained in this resolution can be an incentive to effectively end violence against women. Of course, I also hope that sufficient financial and logistical resources will always be allocated to assist victims and in particular children psychologically. Prevention of violence should be the central goal, but when the evil has already happened, we must also provide the victims with the appropriate support and the necessary respect.

That the problem of gender-based violence does not stop at our national borders is obvious. The right to a life without violation of the most basic human rights is a universal goal for all people around the world. Therefore, we also fully support this resolution. Our international policy should also focus on combating violence against women. Whether the crimes are committed under the pretext of cultural traditions or in the context of organized crime does not play any role for us. Any short-sighted political or economic interests should not prevent us from acting decisively.

We already talked about it several times during the questioning hour in this plenary session, and everyone is praised for the pioneering role of Minister De Croo, together with his Dutch colleague of Development Cooperation, to jump in the bres for the NGOs that are committed to sexual and reproductive health and rights in the South.

Colleagues, the newly cooked US President Trump has just put most of these well-working NGOs on dry seed with a penny pull. It must be done! Or rather, it is not necessary to do it! The right to information and access to birth planning for millions of women worldwide must remain guaranteed. The decision of the Minister therefore fits perfectly with the recommendation in this resolution. That part is already well followed up, even before the adoption of the resolution.

Our party will therefore unanimously support this resolution and we will carefully monitor the follow-up.

Mr President, very briefly

Violence against women is not yet addressed in many countries and therefore much work remains to be done, as colleagues have already said. I think, for example, of impunity, the lack of response and coordination of competent services, the lack of means to protect victims, the underestimation of certain forms of violence such as genital mutilation, the mandatory abortion or sterilization. It is therefore good that the Istanbul Convention has been approved and ratified by the Council of Europe.

This instrument needs to be promoted, also globally. Just think of what has recently been proposed in the Turkish Parliament, where rape of girls is possible if you marry them afterwards. Or think, very recently, of the chat law in Russia, which states that it is still possible to chat in your own family and you can get a small penalty for it. This instrument should therefore be better promoted. By the way, the Istanbul Treaty was accepted in Turkey, but not yet in Russia. The question is how this agreement will be better implemented. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

The Istanbul Treaty must be fulfilled. The tools for this were developed through the GREVIO, which can set up investigative committees. Parliament should carefully supervise the establishment of these committees of inquiry and make recommendations to governments that follow the Treaty.

Parliament therefore plays a very important role. After all, it has been designated as a stakeholder within the instrument of the Istanbul Convention, to play a role. Parliament should also take on that role, especially since Belgium plays a leading role. The European Union has also declared 2017 the year in which the fight against violence must be initiated. We also have a seat in the UN Human Rights Council, allowing our country there to play a leading role in protecting women from violence. We have also developed a good national action plan against violence. There is also the fact that within development cooperation the rights of women and children have clearly been pushed forward as a priority.

We must also play this leading role on a global level. We must ensure that other countries support the Istanbul Convention. We hope, of course, that once it is signed, it will become a powerful instrument, which will also be controlled. We also hope that countries such as Turkey, Russia and the United States will be punished if they fail to comply with this binding instrument. I see a strong role for our Parliament.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Ministers, Mr. Minister, Mr. Minister, Mr. Colleagues, the current news shows us every day that women’s rights are in danger, pushing millions of women around the world to demonstrate for their rights this past Friday.

Simone de Beauvoir once said, “Never forget that a political, economic and religious crisis will suffice for women’s rights to be questioned. These rights are never acquired. You will have to stay vigilant throughout your life.” It is precisely this vigilance that prompted us, on 3 December 2015, to vote unanimously on the bill bringing assent to the Istanbul Convention, an assent demonstrating to women victims of violence, whether in Belgium or in the world, that we do not abandon them.

These violations include intra-family and extrafamily violence, crimes of honor, acts of sexual slavery, genital mutilation and forced sterilization or even forced heterosexuality. They are violence that does not spare any social environment, no culture, no generation, and that strikes women in the private sphere as well as in the public sphere, in their families as well as within the collective. It is a evil of humanity with a great "H" that should be eradicated and for which we must take our responsibilities.

We can no longer accept that today, one in three women in the world is beaten, mutilated, victim of sexual violence or abused during their lifetime. We can no longer accept that violence against women remains the leading cause of death among women aged 14 to 44. We can no longer accept that in Belgium, only one woman victim of rape in ten dares to file a complaint.

Today, we must concrete this Convention in our domestic and foreign policy. We must ensure that the sectors working with women victims of violence, including police officers, judicial staff and social workers, are increasingly well-trained.

We must also call on the other States of the Council of Europe to follow the path of ratification of the Istanbul Convention, and even have the ambition to erect this text into an instrument whose legal scope will be universal.

Finally, I call on you to continue our launch on the defence of women’s rights, following the motion for a resolution voted on 10 June 2016 in the Brussels Parliament. It aims to erect femicide into a criminal offence. Such a signal would show how much our society is concerned about protecting women from violence that is – and will always be – unacceptable and unjustifiable.

We will, of course, support this text, and I ask you all to do the same.