Speech on the causes and policies to combat gender-based violence was delivered by the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Cyprus, Anita Demetriou, at an event held today, Monday 28 November, in Athens.
The event on "Increasing Violence against Women, Causes and Policies" was organised on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women - which was on 25 November - by MEP and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality of the European Parliament, Elisa Wozemberg.
As Ms Demetriou noted during her speech, gender-based violence shows increasing trends in modern societies, "blatantly damaging the dignity of women and young girls, violating the human rights of the victim, depriving them of the equal enjoyment of their rights, constantly widening the gap of inequalities and breaking the social fabric".
"Every femicide, every crime and every act of violence, irrespective of the gravity of the crime, with a man as the perpetrator and a woman or a young girl as the victim, is nothing but a heinous act against a wife, a daughter, a friend, a partner, a sister," she said.
Speaking about the causes of the increase in violence against women and girls, Demetriou noted that "it is certainly not only limited to the concept of 'domestic violence' but also takes other forms outside the narrow concept of the family, as well as 'modern' forms, such as online sexual harassment."
"The state has an obligation, an institutional duty on the basis of the constitutionally enshrined principle of equality, now more than ever, to design and institutionalize ways to support women and girl victims, but above all to reverse persistent stereotypical perceptions," the Speaker of the House of Representatives stressed.
Referring to the part of designing policies and a national strategy to prevent and address gender-based violence, Demetriou noted that cultural change and the reversal of gender stereotypes play a primary role. She also stressed the necessity of integrating the gender dimension in state budgets and in the legal and executive acts of countries, as well as the development of public dialogue with all stakeholders on gender equality issues.
"Already with regard to the Cypriot legal order, I have submitted a proposal for a law proposing a constitutional amendment which would require the three powers to apply the constitutional provisions on fundamental rights and freedoms, in such a way that they incorporate in their actions the gender dimension as a consequence of the constitutional principle of equality, but also as an international obligation under the 1979 United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)," she said. In the same context, Ms Demetriou also referred to the need for a policy to address the under-representation of women in decision-making centres. Welcoming the European Parliament's directive on the representation of women on the boards of directors of listed companies, she referred to it as a milestone in European legislation.
In conclusion, the President of the Parliament stressed that "violence towards women and young girls under eighteen is not just another social phenomenon or a set of criminal or isolated acts or reprehensible behaviour".
"Beyond discrimination, it is a flagrant violation of the human rights of the female victim, not only by the perpetrator but also by the state itself as an entity, when it watches without reacting and taking action," he concluded.
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