Activities of Eleonora FORENZA related to 2017/2275(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION Towards an EU external strategy against early and forced marriages – next steps
Amendments (6)
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas 95% of the world’s births to adolescents occur in developing countries, and nine in 10 of these births occur within marriage or a union; whereas about 19% of young women in developing countries become pregnant before age 18. Girls under 15 account for 2 million of the 7.3 million births that occur to adolescent girls under 18 every year in developing countries; whereas a pregnancy can have immediate and lasting consequences for a girl’s health, education and income-earning potential; whereas about 70,000 adolescents in developing countries die annually of causes related to pregnancy and childbirth1a; __________________ 1a‘Motherhood in Childhood. Facing the challenge of adolescent pregnancy’, report by UNFPA, 2013.
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas education reduces the likelihood of child marriage and delays childbearing, leading to healthier eventual birth outcomes; whereas education prepares girls for jobs and livelihoods, raises their self-esteem and their status in their households and communities, and gives them more say in decisions that affect their lives1a; __________________ 1a‘Motherhood in Childhood. Facing the challenge of adolescent pregnancy’, report by UNFPA, 2013.
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Strongly condemns the reinstatement and expansion of the Mexico City Policy (so-called Global Gag Rule) by the United States in January 2017 and its impact on women’s and girls’ global health care and rights, especially in the case of child marriages; reiterates its call on the EU and its Member States to proactively support women’s and girls’ rights worldwide and to significantly increase both national and EU development funding for sexual and reproductive health and rights, in particular for access to birth control and safe and legal abortion, with a view to reducing the financing gap left by the United States in this area;
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Emphasises that universal respect for and access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) contributes to the achievement of all the health-related sustainable development goals such as prenatal care and measures to avoid high- risk births, reduce infant and child mortality; points out that access to family planning, maternal health services and safe and legal abortion services are important elements to save women´s and girls’ lives; is concerned that no EU delegations in the Middle East and North Africa and the Europe and Central Asia regions chose any SRHR-related indicator despite the important needs regarding SRHR in these regions; calls on EU delegations in these regions to re-evaluate these worrying figures to determine whether they may be linked to misreporting or if there is a need to complement current programmes with targeted actions on SRHR;
Amendment 59 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Stresses the need of a budgetary allocations for child marriage prevention programmes that aim to create an environment where girls can achieve their full potential, including by means of education, social and economic programmes for out-of-school girls, child protection schemes, girls’ and women’s shelters, legal counselling, and psychological support;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Welcomes the launching of the joint EU-UN global gender initiative so- called Spotlight Initiative to address sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices such as early forced marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM) or human trafficking; notes, however, that the Spotlight Initiative addresses mainly elements of the agenda which is already a shared concern globally; underlines therefore the need to advance gender equality in a more comprehensive way, through an adequate mix of programmes and modalities; calls on the Commission to use the midterm review of its international cooperation programmes for increasing funding of the Gender Resource Package in order to streamline gender into bilateral cooperation and through thematic programmes;