Meeting in Athens, the European Latin-American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat) adopted an emergency resolution entitled “Femicide in the European Union and Latin America” by Gloria Flórez (Andean Parliament) and Raül Romeva i Rueda (European Parliament).
The civil society ALOP, CIFCA, Grupo Sur, Oidhaco together with the Heinrich Boell Foundation, welcomed the resolution calling on Member States to implement common action aimed at ending femicide in Europe and Latin America. These organizations had each participated in the resolution drafting process and accompanied the amendment process while ensuring the participation of women’s groups from both regions.
To achieve this resolution, a common bi-regional campaign has been organized to raise awareness of problems of femincides, where the resolution was an instrument to lobby public officials and politicians to allocate economic resources and political will to end violence against women.
After the adoption of the resolution, Greens/EFA MEP Raül Romeva appreciated the work of civil society and called that: “We have spent many years working together in the European Parliament in EuroLat, but also in Latin America to raise awareness of violence against women and demand end impunity that perpetrators get.”
Congresswoman Gloria Florez added: “This decision is a step in the defense of women’s rights and equality, we ask to improve statistics to make visible how many women die from violence and improve police, we demand better judicial and administration process to end impunity and institutional violence against women, we call on protect victims and increasing prevention” and added that “this explicit resolution is ambitious and has clear demands thanks to the work done from the feminist movement, women’s organizations and organizations defending human rights in the two regions”.
The civil society groups said: “We welcome again the introduction of a chapter on gender in the bi-regional dialogue between the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean and the European Union (EU-CELAC). However, as the resolutions calls on, we pledge the EU- CELAC summit to include in a consistently regular and effective way gender violence, sexual violence, femicide and impunity in Latin America and Europe ensuring the participation of the civil society.”
Among other demands, following civil society demands for many years, the resolution calls on concrete steps to eradicate femicide, as the creation of specific indicators, defining evaluation mechanisms, and the inclusion of civil society.
This is the first time that EuroLat has adopted a resolution which recognizes that femicide exists in Europe and has called on the EU and Member States to ratify the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women. ALOP, CIFCA, Grupo Sur and Oidhaco and the Heinrich Boell Foundation, along with the political parties involved in this resolution, congratulates the work done and are committed to keep on working so that this resolution will not remain a dead letter.
