16 Amendments of Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ related to 2013/2020(INI)
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph A a (new)
Paragraph A a (new)
Aa. whereas gender equality, the political and economic empowerment of women, promotion of gender equality and the defence of women’s rights are crucial to reducing poverty and encouraging sustainable development;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph A b (new)
Paragraph A b (new)
Ab. whereas studies show that if women are educated and can earn and control income, a number of good results follow: maternal and infant mortality declines, women and child health and nutrition improve, agricultural productivity rises, climate change can be mitigated, population growth slows, economies expand and cycles of poverty are broken1;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. RPoints out that women are frequently discriminated against when it comes to recognising their work campaigning for peace; recalls that where more women are engaged in conflict resolution and peace- building processes, they play a key role in peace negotiations, broadening the scope of reconstruction, rehabilitation and peace 1 Isobel Coleman, ‘The global glass ceiling: why empowering women is good for business’, in Foreign Affairs, Vol. 89, May/June 2010, pp.13-20; UNFPA, ‘State of world population 2009 – Facing a changing world: women, population and climate’. building; therefore encourages the participation of women in all reconciliation efforts in Mali and in the north of the country especially;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Urges the EU and the countries of the Sahel region to fully implement the UN Security Council’s resolutions 1325, on women, peace and security, calling for women’s participation in all aspects and at all levels of conflict resolution, 1820 on sexual violence in conflict and post- conflict situations, and its subsequent resolutions 1888, 1889 and 1960, which build on the above-mentioned resolutions; therefore asks for women’s participation in peace processes to be emphasised and guaranteed and for the need to include gender mainstreaming in conflict prevention, peace-keeping operations, humanitarian aid and post-conflict reconstruction to be recognised; deplores the extreme suffering inflicted on women, simply because they are women, in conflict zones; maintains that action of this kind, including the rape of girls by soldiers, forced prostitution, forced impregnation of women, sexual slavery, rape and sexual harassment, and consensual abduction (by means of seduction), are crimes which must not be ignored; asserts that the EU must treat these as fundamental problems to be taken into account; emphasises that it is essential to ensure access to abortion for women and girls who have been raped in situations of armed conflict;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Draws attention to the role played by the women of Western Sahara in peace- keeping and promoting dialogue and conflict resolution, as well as in maintaining Sahrawi society and structures;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls for the development of policies which take into account the specific situation of vulnerable groups, such as women, children and persons with disabilities, and, by extension, for the provision of relevant infrastructure, such as hospitals, schools and educational equipment, and the necessary social, psychological and administrative support; highlights the importance of cooperating and consulting with local women’s organisations;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. States that special attention needs to be paid to educating both sexes about gender issues from the start of schooling onwards, so that attitudes and social stereotypes change gradually and gender equality becomes a basic principle of society in the Sahel region;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Commission, the EEAS and the Council to encourage more countries in the region to make explicit statutory provision for women’s and girls’ rights and to prioritise programmes that would ensure those rights, in particular, access to education, health, sexual and reproductive rights, the financial independence of women, the participation of women in political and economic decision-making and the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls on the countries of the Sahel region to adopt laws and concrete measures prohibiting and establishing penalties for all forms of violence against women, including domestic and sexual violence, sexual harassment and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation and forced marriages, especially in the case of underage girls; highlights the importance of protecting the victims and providing specifically- targeted services, while combating the impunity of attackers and ensuring that these crimes are investigated, tried and properly punished, as well as making justice fully available to all women, without any form of discrimination on religious and/or ethnic grounds;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Special Representatives of the EU for the Sahel and for human rights to develop joint actions to ensure women’s rights in the region more effectively; urges that the European Commission, the EEAS and partner states make women’s rights and gender equality a priority for bilateral aid programmes.; emphasises that the promotion of equality between men and women should be seen as a cross-cutting issue;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Deplores the fact that neither the EU Strategy for security and development in the Sahel, adopted on 21 March 2011, nor the conclusions on this strategy adopted by the Foreign Affairs Council of 23 March 2012 contain any reference to the promotion of gender equality, the situation of women or the defence of women’s rights;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Regrets the Commission’s failure to place adequate emphasis on the gender dimension of poverty; believes the EU must invest in the specific needs of women and design social protection packages that address the challenges faced by women; emphasises that gender equality and the political and economic empowerment of women are of crucial importance when it comes to meeting the development and poverty reduction goals in the Sahel; urges the Commission to ensure that gender equality and the empowerment of women will be mainstreamed in all EU development policies and programmes relating to the Sahel region;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Condemns the fact that budget cuts in areas such as food security, health and education, which are of key importance in achieving the Millennium Goals, continue to exacerbate food and humanitarian crises in the Sahel; emphasises the fundamental need for structural action in the fields of agriculture, food security and nutrition, as well as specific measures to eradicate land-grabbing, in order to promote inclusive and sustainable growth and to prevent the annual recurrence of food crises in the Sahel region;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5d. Notes that women have an essential role to play in the development of the Sahel region, particularly in terms of nutrition, food security and food production, as they are the ones principally engaged in agriculture, although women still have almost no access to ownership of the land they cultivate; calls on the Commission to recognise the fundamental role of women, as smallholder farmers, in food security, and to invest in programmes which specifically support them; insists that the EU strategy should also focus on the implementation of actions to ensure that the most vulnerable, especially in rural areas, are able to benefit from agricultural training opportunities, education on nutrition, good health and working conditions, and a safety net in times of need; emphasises that for smallholder farmers, and particularly women farmers, to be able to not only farm sustainably but also develop their productive potential, they need to have increased access to microcredit loans, so that they can invest in better seeds, fertilisers and irrigation methods and obtain the tools needed to protect their crops from pests and disease;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 e (new)
Paragraph 5 e (new)
5e. Highlights the urgent need to grant EU humanitarian aid to help achieve the Millennium Goals; underlines the importance of the goal of improving maternal health in order to reduce maternal mortality and ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and family planning; stresses the importance of education and awareness- raising in the area of sexual and reproductive health as an integral part of the women’s health agenda;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 f (new)
Paragraph 5 f (new)
5f. Underlines the need to design and implement health programmes in order to strengthen health systems, taking into account the fact that the global economic crisis has undermined progress on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases;