Strategic Action at the European Union level: Ways forward to prevent violence against women

Transcription

1 Strategic Action at the European Union level: Ways forward to prevent violence against women Sylvia Walby Distinguished Professor of Sociology, UNESCO Chair in Gender Research Lancaster University, UK

2 Ways forward Legal action There are legal bases for Directives Economic policy Action to prevent cost violence against women (VAWG) to EU of 228bn Use of structural funds Protect specialised service provision Gender balance in decision-making From corporate boards to judicial authorities Research Strategic Plan

3 Alternative legal strategies Incremental, step by step, gradual, accumulation of small changes Existing practice of EU Commission Big bold change European Parliament Resolution, Feb 2014 Draws on Article 225 of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) Innovative use of TFEU Extending VAW policy in economic field

4 6 existing Directives concerning VAWG EU Directives on specific aspects of VAWG Protection orders: 2011/99/EU Trafficking: 2011/36/EU Child sex abuse: 2011/92/EU Victim s rights: 2012/29/EU Harassment (both gender and sexual) in employment: 2002/73/EC Harassment in sale and distribution of goods, services: 2004/113/EC

5 Incremental change via Directives supported by TFEU Civil and criminal law: Article 82 (1)(a)(d) Judicial cooperation Criminal law: Article 82(2) Mutual recognition of criminal judgements with a cross-border dimension Serious criminal law: Article 83(1) minimum rules for definition of serious crimes with cross-border dimension: trafficking in human beings &sexual exploitation of women & children

6 Don t forget discrimination law Harassment Directives (2002, 2004) Employment law: Article 157(3) Equal treatment in employment includes antiharassment: Ordinary legislative procedure Equality law: Article 19 To extend the fields in which to combat discrimination based on sex Special procedure requires unanimous action of Council Ordinary procedure restricts actions to nonlegislative

7 What are the limits? Changes to MS laws under TFEU 82, 83 require a field of existing criminal law that is already nearly harmonised if ordinary legislative route to be used Neither gender-based violence against women nor domestic violence have nearly harmonised definitions in MS criminal law, so fail this criteria But some areas fit, e.g. rape, domestic assault And TFEU Art 19 could create new fields, though requires a special legislative procedure TFEU Art 225 allows Parliament to ask Commission to do something new Other actions possible in field of economy

8 Directive on rape? Rape meets Article 83 requirements cross-border dimension sexual exploitation of women and children Judicial cooperation requires shared minimum rules; this needs changes in MS law concerning No marital exemption Consent-based standard

9 Directive on domestic assault? Meets the requirements under Article 82 Minimum rules for purposes of crossborder judicial cooperation Changes: no marital exemption to application of criminal laws on assault

10 From Gender Harassment to Genderbased violence? Harassment on grounds of gender already Contrary to EU law on equal treatment and nondiscrimination: Articles 157 and 19 TFEU Gender based violence against women is logically a sub-type of gender harassment Clarification of this would assist judicial cooperation in EU law In fields of employment and sale and distribution of goods and services ordinary procedures are OK But extending locations beyond these would require Council unanimity

11 Extending VAWG policy into employment and economy Since VAWG is a detriment to women s employment, then actions within the employment field are relevant Reintegration into labour market: Article 153 European Structural Funds: Article 162 Broad economic guidelines: Article 5 Services general economic interest: Article 14 EU allows MS to decide which services are of general economic interest rather than of economic interest thus whether they are subject to competition law or not

12 Cost of violence against women Cost of VAW in EU is 228bn a year 3 types of costs Public/state funded services (health, justice, specialised services) Lost economic output: detriment to economic growth Pain and suffering to victim/survivor

13 Research, external relations, public health: further bases for nonlegislative EU action Research and statistics: Article 338 Surveys and research on gender based violence could be authorised as pursuing EU goals to combat sex discrimination External relations: Article 214 Anti-VAWG could be explicitly included in external relations e.g. Humanitarian aid Public health: Articles 6a, 9, 168 E.g. Funding Daphne for knowledge exchange since VAWG a detriment to public health

14 Gender balance in decisionmaking Gender balance in decision-making EU policy UN Security Council policy: peacekeeping Recent EU attempts to apply to corporate boards Apply to judicial authorities? Europol Judges

15 Conclusions : Ways forward Law/Directives New minimum standards in specific areas to enable judicial cooperation across borders To combat discrimination that is violence-based Economic policy: embed VAWG into economic policy Structural funds Broad economic guidelines Protect specialised services Gender balance in decision-making Research Strategic plan

16 References S. Walby. Legal perspectives for action at EU level. European Parliament Value Added Unit S. Walby and P. Olive. Cost of VAWG in EU. EP VAU S. Walby et al. Overview of the worldwide best practices for rape prevention. European Parliament (EP) S. Walby & J. Allen, Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault & Stalking: Findings from the British Crime Survey. Home Office S. Walby. The Cost of Domestic Violence. Department of Trade and Industry Women and Equality Unit, J. Towers and S. Walby Measuring the impact of cuts in public expenditure on the provision of services to prevent violence against women and girls. Northern Rock &Trust for London S. Walby The Future of Feminism. Polity S. Walby Globalization and Inequalities. Sage, 2009.