European Union - Mexico Civil Society Seminar on Human Rights
[Brussels, 17 March 2014] In the framework of the bilateral Human Rights Dialogue between the European Union and Mexico which took place in the 18th of March, the European Women’s Lobby took part in a very fruitful Seminar of Civil Society Organisations from Mexico and the EU. This meeting was a unique opportunity to promote the exchange of information and good practices among CSOs from both regions on topics covered in the Human Rights Dialogue: violence against women; human rights defenders, business and human rights; and citizen security.
As a result, the EU-Mexican CSOs made recommendations on the four topics, addressed to Mexico and the EU. Specifically on the topic of Violence against Women, the Civil Society Organisations highlighted the need to seriously address the topic of violence against women which is rooted in deep structural economic, political and cultural inequalities between women and men which prevent women from enjoying a life free from violence.
In this regard, CSOs recommended Mexico and the EU to:
- Desing and implement mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the implementation of international treaties to eradicate violence against women.
- Implement the recommendations of the Proposed Resolution of urgency about the femicide in the European Union and Latin America Parliamentary Assembly EUROLAT .
- Promote the participation of civil society working in the fight against gender violence within the framework of bilateral relations and spaces for political dialogue between Mexico and the European Union .
- Promote projects to train all the spectrum of professionals that can be in touch with women victims of violence - from the field of health to justice-.
- Ensure from a life-cicle perspective, that protection services and policies to eradicate VAW explicitly takes into consideration the perspective of girls and adolescents.
The specific recommendations to the European Union and its Member States in the field of violence against women were to:
- Ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention ) .
- Establish an European year against gender violence.
Download all the recommendations. In English. In Spanish
Find more information here.