European & International News

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

European & International News
Economic dependency ratio, not retirement age, to determine future pension funding needs, says European Economic and Social Committee

Posted on 8 July 2011 |

[European Economic and Social Committee, Brussels, 7 July 2011] "By far the most effective response to an ageing population in Europe is to make full use of available employment potential", noted Leila Kurki at an informal meeting of the ministers for labour and social affairs held on Thursday. Kurki is president of the Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship of the European Economic and Social Committee. Kurki pointed out that boosting employment among older people by making (...) Read more
European & International News
UN Women flagship report exposes gaps in legal protection of women

Posted on 7 July 2011 |

[Brussels, 7 July 2011] UN Women, the organisation launched to support UN Member States in their efforts to address gender inequalities, has issued the first edition of the Progress of the World’s Women report on 6 July 2011. The flagship publication ‘Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice’ is a comprehensive study of women’s access to justice across the globe and exposes a worrying paradox. Despite the expanding scope of legal protection, these guarantees are rarely translated (...) Read more
European & International News
More MEPs call for gender balance in companies’ boardrooms

Posted on 6 July 2011 |

[Brussels, 6 July 2011] Last week, at a conference in Berlin, Commissioner Reding reminded European companies that they have less than a year to voluntarily commit to achieving gender balance in their boardrooms. As Member States continue to elaborate how to address the under-representation of women in decision-making, more MEPs engage to give a clear message of support to quotas for women on boards.
In a recent interview for Europarl TV (see below) Vice-President Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (...) Read more
European & International News
EU Fundamental Rights Agency presents new study on conditions faced by irregular migrants employed as domestic workers

Posted on 5 July 2011 |

[EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, Brussels, 5 July 2011] The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) is presenting its report on the fundamental rights of irregular migrants who are employed as domestic workers in the EU. Most irregular migrants in domestic work are women. The report shows that their irregular immigration status, coupled with challenges in regulating domestic work more generally, makes this group very vulnerable to exploitation, including cases of physical (...) Read more
European & International News
Human Rights Council elects first woman President

Posted on 5 July 2011 |

[International Service for Human Rights, Geneva, 30 June 2011] On the morning of 20 June 2011, the Human Rights Council (the Council) held its Organisational Session for the upcoming cycle. Ms Laura Dupuy Lasserre, the Permanent Representative of Uruguay to the United Nations Office at Geneva was elected as the new President, the Council’s first-ever female President.
Prior to Ms Lasserre’s introduction, Ms Navanetham Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, pointed to the Council’s (...) Read more
European & International News
EU focus on women’s rights crucial to real democratic development in Egypt, says Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network

Posted on 5 July 2011 |

[Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, Copenhagen/Cairo, 5 July 2011] In an Open Letter to the Egyptian Prime Minister, Issam Sharaf, to the EU High Representative for the Union of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Asthon, and to the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barosso, 35 representatives of Egyptian civil society organisations working on human rights and women’s rights express their concerns over the transitional period after the January 25th revolution in Egypt. According (...) Read more
European & International News
UN chief calls for specific steps to close gender gap in parliaments

Posted on 4 July 2011 |

[United Nations, New York, 30 June 2011] UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-Moon told a high-level forum on women and democracy, held in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, that it was time for “faster and wider progress” in promoting the participation of women at all levels of society. “When women are included, democracies thrive. And when women take their rightful leadership roles, all of society benefits,” he said in a message to the forum delivered by Margot Wallström, his Special (...) Read more
European & International News
Commissioner Reding reminds public companies that they must rapidly increase the number of women on boards or face regulation

Posted on 1 July 2011 |

[Brussels, 01 July 2011] Women in leadership positions are an issue high on the EU agenda for months, and a topic of which Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, has been vocal in her support. At a conference in Berlin, Ms Reding reminded European companies that they have less than a year to voluntarily commit to and sign the "Women on the Board Pledge for Europe". In case companies fail to achieve the expected results, Commissioner Reding recalled, (...) Read more
European & International News
International Federation of Gynaecology & Obstetrics adopts ethical guidelines to prevent forced sterilisation of women

Posted on 1 July 2011 |

[Brussels, 01 July 2011] Around the world evidence continues to exist that there is a disproportionate number of women in vulnerable situations to be threatened with non-consensual or forced sterilisation. Vulnerable women are women living with HIV, Romani women, women with mental health problems or intellectual disabilities, transgender persons, women who use drugs, and indigenous women. They are still threatened to be sterilised even without their own freely-given and informed consent. To (...) Read more
European & International News
First woman appointed head of the International Monetary Fund

Posted on 30 June 2011 |

[Brussels, 01 July 2011] France’s finance minister, Christine Lagarde, has been appointed head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She is the first woman to hold this post, in a sector which is heavily gendered. According to the EWL’s 2009 Statement Women, the Financial and Economic Crisis - the Urgency of a Gender Perspective, ’not one governor of the central banks of the EU Member States is a woman. Only one of the six members of the executive board of the governing council of the (...) Read more