Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-13-Speech-4-035"
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"en.20080313.3.4-035"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, five days ago we celebrated the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Much has been achieved, yet there is still no evidence of equal opportunities in the poorest countries of this world. The human rights of women and of the girl-child are still far from being an unalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights, called for in the United Nations Vienna Declaration of 1993.
In my report I dealt in detail with the situation of women and girls in developing countries and I have also looked at ways in which European development cooperation can improve the lives of these women. Let me briefly quote a few facts and figures.
Two thirds of all illiterates in the world are women. More than 40% of women in Africa have not attended primary school. In Africa, women make up 52% of the total population but perform 75% of the agricultural work and produce and market 60-80% of the food.
The Commission’s updated strategy for women’s equality and participation in development cooperation addresses important areas and proposes concrete measures to promote equality. The dual approach of the strategy, making gender mainstreaming more efficient and also proposing separate measures to promote equality, is welcome. I also applaud the 41 practical measures in the areas of responsible governance, employment, the economy, education, health and violence against women. Nonetheless, in my report I have criticised several points. Let me discuss the most important ones briefly.
I believe that combating traditional forms of violence should lie at the heart of the measures to combat violence against women. Secondly, I must say I am rather taken aback that the strategy fails to mention the Economic Partnership Agreements. At no point is reference made to the link between strengthening the role of women and the economic agreements between the EU and the ACP States. As for the specific situation of women in conflicts, I regret the fact that the strategy fails to comment on the specific role that women play in what are called weak states and in the least developed countries. Special attention should also be paid to the reproductive health and sexual rights of women in developing countries.
I very much regret that most of the draft amendments are once again concerned only with deleting passages from the report that call for the right of women freely and independently to decide about their body and their life. I do not want to sound boastful, but my report should not be reduced to that issue. In this connection I welcome the amendments proposed by Mrs Buitenweg on behalf of the Greens and thank her for her important contributions.
On reproductive health, I just want to say the following at this point: every woman has the right to decide freely and independently about her body and her life. Women’s full access to sexual and reproductive health is a prerequisite for achieving gender equality. So long as women are refused that access, it will be others who decide about women’s bodies and lives. Surely nobody seriously concerned with Europe’s humanist tradition, with our shared values and with respect for human rights could want that!"@en1
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