European & International News

International news globe All the latest news from the European Union, its member states, and beyond.

European & International News
CSW 2012 - UN member states fail to reach agreement on empowerment of rural women

Posted on 16 March 2012 |

[Brussels, 16 March 2012] The 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women ended at the UN headquarters in New York without Agreed Conclusions on the theme of the year, rural women. The EWL expresses its gave disappointment and concern that the UN member states have failed to reach agreement.
The negotiations had already been extended with an extra week beyond the scheduled CSW session to give the member states more time.
The European Union delivered a strong statement regretting (...) Read more
European & International News
European Parliament backs quotas to get more women on company boards and politics

Posted on 15 March 2012 |

[Brussels, 14 March 2012] The European Parliament has called on the Commission to take immediate action to introduce binding legislation to put more women into company boardrooms. The Parliament also urged member states and political parties to introduce quotas to reach gender balance in political decision-making.
Quotas for economic and political decison-making were part of the several proposals approved by the Parliament on Tuesday to tackle gender inequality in the EU.
In a debate on (...) Read more
European & International News
UK: Feminists and plastic surgeons unite to outlaw cosmetic surgery ads

Posted on 14 March 2012 |

[UK Feminista, London, 14 March 2012] UK Feminista has launched a campaign calling on the Government to outlaw the advertising of cosmetic surgery. A new report, ’Cut it Out – End Cosmetic Surgery Advertising,’ reveals how advertising recklessly trivialises invasive surgery and preys on women’s body insecurities. It also surveys the extent of cosmetic surgery advertising in four leading women’s magazines.
Leading plastic surgeons and feminist campaigners have added their support, signing a (...) Read more
European & International News
UN to hold world conference on women in 2015?

Posted on 12 March 2012 |

[United Nations, Xinhua, 09 March 2012] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the 66th session of the UN General Assembly Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser proposed the idea here of holding a global conference on women’s issues in 2015, 20 years after the last women’s summit held in Beijing. The proposal will go before the 193-member General Assembly for final approval.
The joint announcement was released on the International Women’s Day, which is held to draw attention to the (...) Read more
European & International News
European Parliament International Women’s Day event on the gender pay gap

Posted on 9 March 2012 |

[Brussels, 08 March 2012] The President of the European Parliament Martin Schultz opened the meeting saying: “The gender pay gap is a humiliation.” And this humiliation is persistent: Though last year’s estimates of 17 % around this time dropped to figures between 16-17 % in 2012 the sad truth is that there has been only little improvement since 1975 when Europe got its first legislation on equal pay.
The indisputable fact is that no country in Europe is free from this tangible proof of (...) Read more
European & International News
Little money to promote gender equality in Eastern Europe

Posted on 9 March 2012 |

[IPS, Warsaw, 04 March 2012] Despite pushes from international bodies such as the United Nations (UN) or the European Union (EU) to promote gender equality in Central and Eastern Europe, access to funding for such initiatives remains largely conditional upon national governments’ willingness to embrace this agenda.
Immediately after the fall of communism in 1989, Central and Eastern European (CEE) NGOs working on gender equality got most of their funding from U.S. or Western European (...) Read more
European & International News
Vagina Monologues in the EP: a cross-party call for EU action to end violence against women

Posted on 7 March 2012 |

[Brussels, 06 March 2012] Ahead of the International Women’s Day on Tuesday 06 March, nine members of the European Parliament became “artivists”, performing the well-known theater play “Vagina Monologues” in the European Parliament, using their talent in interpreting the sharp, tender, joyful text of Eve Ensler as another way to pass their political message.
In front of a crowded space in the EP, mixing MEPs, activists and general public, the nine performers brilliantly succeeded to move the (...) Read more
European & International News
Women’s political participation must be accelerated through quotas, says UN Women Director

Posted on 5 March 2012 |

[United Nations, New York, 02 March 2012] The head of the United Nations entity mandated to promote gender equality highlighted the role of quotas to accelerate women’s political participation, adding that more hands-on measures are needed to achieve significant progress on this issue.
“Today I call for stronger commitment by leaders to increase women’s participation in politics,” said Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN (...) Read more
European & International News
02 March is the European Equal Pay Day 2012

Posted on 2 March 2012 |

[European Commission, Brussels, 02 March 2012] Women across the EU continue to earn an average of 16.4% less than men, according to new figures released by the European Commission on European Equal Pay Day.
This is the second Equal Pay Day at European level following its launch by the European Commission on 5 March 2011. The EU-wide event marks the extra number of days that women must work to match the amount of money earned by men. The European Commission wants to raise awareness about (...) Read more
European & International News
Debate on EU quota for women on boards pushes top companies to propose targets

Posted on 1 March 2012 |

[Financial Times, London, 01 March 2012] Some of Europe’s biggest companies on Thursday responded to political pressure by publishing their targets for increasing the number of women in senior corporate roles and launching a database of female board candidates.
The twin initiatives – under the umbrella of the European Round Table of Industrialists – come just days before Viviane Reding, European Union justice commissioner, is set to give her assessment of corporate progress in bringing more (...) Read more