[women-rights] Europe is not meeting its own target on gender equality in public life

***Learn more about International Women's Day, 8 March 2007:  
http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/iwd.php


Statement by Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe and
Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe
on the occasion of International Women's Day

Strasbourg, 07.03.2007 -- Gender equality is a matter of both fairness and
common sense. A society which does not allow more than half of its
population to take full part in the public decision-making process not
only discriminates against women but also fails to exploit its own
political, economical and social potential.

Four years after the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe set a
40% minimum target for a balanced representation in any decision-making
body in political or public life, the statistics gathered by the Council
of Europe reveal a disappointing reality. Europe is still a team with
nearly half the players left standing on the sidelines.

Among the 36 countries which responded to a questionnaire in September
2005, only Sweden had attained the recommended minimum for women in the
national parliament. In half of Europe the representation was below 20 %.

Of the six women who were heads of state in Europe, three were monarchs,
two had been directly elected and one had been appointed by the
parliament. As to the heads of government, the picture was even bleaker.
Until the election of Angela Merkel as the German Chancellor in November
2005, all prime ministers in Europe were men. Moreover, only six Council
of Europe member states had more than 40% of women as ministers, and in
six member states there were no women ministers at all. The proportion of
women in of local government and in the highest judiciary bodies in
Council of Europe member states also failed to reach the agreed target.

The 2003 Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers contains specific
legislative and administrative measures to improve the situation. The
statistics show that progress is dismally slow. It is time to move the
issue of gender equality from rhetoric to politics.

Full statistical report on the participation of women and men in
political and public decision making in Council of Europe member
states (situation as at 1 September 2005):
http://www.coe.int/t/e/human_rights/equality/pdf_cdeg(2006)15_e.pdf


Council of Europe Press Division 
Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 25 60 
Fax:+33 (0)3 88 41 39 11