The Council of Europe has adopted a new gender equality strategy

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe recently adopted the Gender Equality Strategy for 2018-2023.

According to the official website, the strategy reaffirms the commitments undertaken by the organization to address challenges and obstacles that exist or may appear on the way to achieving gender equality within Member States and within the organization. Beneficiaries of the new strategy are women and men, girls and boys living in the 47 member states of the Council of Europe.

The main emphasis will be made in six strategic directions: prevention and combating gender stereotypes and sexism, prevention and control of violence against women and domestic violence, ensuring equal access to women’s justice system, ensuring equal participation of men and women in political and social decision-making, the protection of women and girls seeking asylum, as well as the inclusion of gender perspective in any strategy and event. The launch of the strategy will be on 3-4 May of this year and will start in Copenhagen on May 3-4, 2018, with a conference titled “On the Road to Gender Equality.”

The 83-point strategy first defines gender equality, focuses on stereotypes, violence against women and its various consequences, and sets out the goals to be achieved by the joint efforts of partner state bodies and international organizations. In 2018-2023 strategy each priority in the strategy document has a hazard analysis table.

Experts note that the progress in the problem solving has been noticeable; in recent decades women’s legal status has improved in Europe; however, effective equality between men and women is still far from desirable. In many areas, there are still gender gaps; obstacles remain in many areas that limit women’s opportunities to enjoy their basic rights.

The strategy summarizes: “Many challenges and obstacles will continue to affect the de facto equality between men and women. They are conditioned by the current economic and political context, as well as inherited gender stereotypes, mentality, and unequal distribution of resources. ”

Full text in Armenian