European & International News

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

European & International News
FRA recognised for its outstanding work on combating violence against women

Posted on 16 October 2014 |

[Press release of the Fundamental Rights Agency, 14 October 2014] The Spanish Observatory against domestic and gender violence has awarded its prestigious annual prize to the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights for its outstanding work to help end violence against women.
“For too long, violence against women was regarded as a private problem that should and could not be discussed in public, and women who were abused by their partners or by strangers were expected to suffer in silence,” said FRA (...) Read more
European & International News
Canada’s House of Commons Approves Bill C-36 Targeting the Demand for Commercial Sex

Posted on 15 October 2014 |

[Press release of CATW International, October 9, 2014, USA] The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) applauds the passage of Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, in Canada’s House of Commons on October 6, 2014. As it enters the Senate, we call on its members to pass this legislation. If adopted into law, it will explicitly criminalize pimps and buyers of commercial sex, who fuel the sex industry and sex trafficking. Bill C-36 also provides for the (...) Read more
European & International News
Gender equality: MEPs work on strategy to offer men and women the same opportunities

Posted on 13 October 2014 |

[News of the European Parliament, Brussels, 14 October 2014]
With the glass ceiling far from shattered and the pay gap not any closer to being bridged, much still needs to be done to achieve equality between women and men. The gender equality committee discussed the progress made in 2013 with experts, which will be fed into an upcoming report by Marc Tarabella, a Belgian member of the S&D group. They also debated a report being written by Maria Noichl, a German member of the S&D (...) Read more
European & International News
EngenderHealth Launches WTFP?! (Where’s The Family Planning?!) Campaign

Posted on 3 October 2014 |

Celebrity campaign inspires action for global women’s health & contraception
[EngenderHealth, New York, September 22, 2014] EngenderHealth, a leading global women’s health organization, announced today the launch of its WTFP?! (Where’s the Family Planning?!): “History’s Worst Contraceptives.”
“Family planning is a game changer in women’s lives. When a woman is able to have the number of children she wants, not the number her circumstances dictate, transformative events happen: She goes (...) Read more
European & International News
UN Women Beijing+20 campaign: Women and poverty

Posted on 3 October 2014 |

[UN Women, October 2014] In 2015, the Beijing Platform for Action runs 20. As part of UN Women’s Beijing+20 campaign, this month’s focus is on Women and Poverty. You can find more information on UN Women Beijing+20 website: facts and figures, take the quizz!, interviews, news from the world and videos, resources.
The last few years have seen historic achievements in reducing the number of people who are poor, making the end of extreme poverty possible in the coming generation. That requires (...) Read more
European & International News
Emma Watson launches ‘HeForShe’ campaign with a bang

Posted on 26 September 2014 |

[Brussels, 26 September 2014] Emma Watson, recently appointed UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, launched the United Nations ‘HeForShe rights [as men].’
Watson did also not shy away from using the word ‘feminism’, defining it as ‘the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.’ She asked herself and the audience why ‘feminism’ had become an ‘unpopular’ and ‘uncomfortable’ word, and stressed that while it may not satisfy desires for a ‘uniting word’, the most important thing is to step forward and (...) Read more
European & International News
Germany - "Prostitution and human trafficking cannot be separated"

Article of EMMA magazine published on 18 August 2014

Posted on 19 September 2014 |

[Original article in German here, EMMA Magazine, 18 August 2014] Manfred Paulus knows the red light milieu very well. For more than 30 years, he was in charge of prostitution and trafficking in women as head of a criminal inspection unit in Ulm. Even before his retirement, the EU sent him as an expert into the "recruitment countries" of the women who end up in German brothels, model apartments and walking the streets. Paulus researched from Belarus to Romania the paths used to bring sold (...) Read more
European & International News
France: sex trade survivor marching 740km to request abolitionist law #marchepourlabolition

Posted on 19 September 2014 |

[France, 19 September 2014] On 3 September 2014, Rosen Hicher, a sex trade survivor, started a 740km journey from Saintes to Paris, in order to bring societal attention to the reality of prostitution and call for the adoption of an abolitionist law in France. Rosen Hicher plans to arrive in Paris mid of October. Along the way, she will stop in the different cities where she was prostituted, meeting decision-makers and citizens, until she reaches Paris, where she "worked" in a champagne bar, (...) Read more
European & International News
Swedish elections: Feminist Party on the rise, 0,9 % more votes needed to meet threshold

Posted on 19 September 2014 |

[Brussels, 15 September 2014] Yesterday, national and regional elections took place in Sweden, and the polls indicated that the first ever feminist party, Feminist Initiative in Europe could enter the Swedish parliament. During the evening it became clear that this would not happen; the party got 3,1% and didn’t make it over the 4% threshold.
The Swedish Democrats, the extremist right wing party, did on the other hand a surprisingly successful election reaching 12,9% and is now the third (...) Read more
European & International News
How the US Helms Amendment Hurts Women raped in War

Posted on 19 September 2014 |

[Global Justice Center, September 2014] It is a shame that 65 years after signing the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. continues to violate the treaty by discriminating against female survivors of war rape. This is because the U.S. the world’s largest humanitarian aid donor – places blanket abortion restrictions on its aid to war rape survivors. They are denied access to life-saving abortions, which in war can mean a death sentence to girls and women, half of whom are children. See below a (...) Read more