Ladies and gentlemen,
I am particularly honoured to be invited by my dear friend and MEP Elisa Wozemberg to attend today's event, on the occasion of 25 November - International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, organised by her and in her high capacity as Vice-Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality to discuss and delve deeper into the sad phenomena of increasing violence against women and to delve with particular care into the causes, but above all into the design of the necessary policies to address them.
And it is also with great pleasure that I am here in Athens today, among distinguished personalities from Greece, as well as Cypriots living here, to analyse and focus on this issue with the attention and gravity it deserves. To stand up against this repulsive phenomenon of gender violence, which, despite all the legislation and other important regulations that have been introduced in modern societies to promote gender equality, is constantly growing and increasing, threatening everyone, grossly affecting 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.
Allow me, therefore, to reiterate for the umpteenth time that every femicide, every crime and every act of violence, regardless 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 daughter, a friend, a partner, a sister. An act that is primarily directed against a human being that is invaluable and precious to society and, of course, to all those who experience loss, as in the case of femicide. But it is also inevitably an act directed against all of us, who at every new news of yet another heinous femicide as the most extreme form of gender violence, remain speechless, living in modern 'supposedly' civilised, European societies, where no form of gender violence should have any place.
And yet, not only does gender violence in all its forms comfortably find its place in modern societies, triggered of course by deeply stereotypical notions of women and girls as the possessions of the male husband, boyfriend, partner, current and former, brother, father, but it also predicts a bleak future for all, if it is not understood that a proper, timely and coordinated reaction is required to find ways of dealing with such unacceptable and deplorable phenomena for our societies, which dangerously impregnate the social relations between men and women, making them, to a large extent, and without reaction, unfortunately, tolerated and/or accepted.
Identifying, first of all, some of the causes of the particular increase in violence against women and girls observed in recent years, which 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, we cannot but note that, beyond the classic stereotypical perceptions, there have been additional aggravating factors in recent years, which we are called upon to take into account and intercept with timely preventive interventions for the future, such as the economic crisis that has affected many societies, especially the Cypriot and Greek ones, the period of pandemic confinement and the pressures it brought, but also the indiscriminate and consequently dangerous use of social media, which remain largely unchecked.
At the same time, however, we are also confronted with the so-called "invisible crimes", largely criminal acts of violence of all degrees, which are not reported either by the victims or by the wider environment, the acts of shame that remain in the shadows, behind tightly closed doors, and which are consequently tolerated, deepened and multiplied, making the woman and the girl a repeated victim.
It is for these reasons that 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 institutionalise ways of supporting women and girl victims, but above all to reverse persistent stereotypical perceptions, to implement policies and, with the cooperation of all actors, to take effective, preventive and repressive measures, which will act as a barrier and barrier to violence against women and girls.
To the question of why now, the answer is because now the problem and its multiple aspects have been identified and crystallised, and because a modern, European society is not conceivable when we remain impassive in the face of all these women and girls who, precisely because of the nature and substance of the problem, cannot or are not in a position to claim the obvious, namely the equal enjoyment of their human rights. But moreover, because it is both an obligation and a challenge, to oppose the men/police officers who "undisturbed" and from a position of power exercise violence, with all our strength.
It is therefore necessary for everyone to work together to plan and support the implementation of a national strategy to combat violence against women and girls, as the necessary framework for the development of multi-level actions, because the state undoubtedly cannot and must not be absent from such a collective effort to reposition our value convictions on their proper institutional foundations. Equality and above all respect for the dignity of all individuals in a state, regardless of their gender and/or other particularities, but also because such an effort must not and cannot be left to the private sphere of will, as this would be doomed to failure.
What, then, should be our objectives in the context of designing the necessary policies and drawing up a national strategy to prevent and combat violence against women?
It is first and foremost a change of culture, awareness of the concept of the term "stereotypes", by creating the necessary empathy, also from school age, through the development of programmes, the development of experiential workshops and similar activities in schools, and the adoption of appropriate and innovative teaching and online tools that will prevent the development of stereotypical perceptions of gender in general and formulate correct attitudes and behaviour in particular.
It is also the integration of the gender dimension in the state budgets of our countries (gender budgeting), so that state resources are allocated equally to all citizens, women and men, with particular emphasis on the increased needs of women and girls for purposes of combating inequalities and equal access to development opportunities, but also reconciliation and inclusive and inclusive work and family life. In this context, it is important to develop a public dialogue with all stakeholders (civil society, academia and the research community) in order to make clear the importance of prevention at all levels and targeted and timely intervention to shape our countries' public budgets accordingly.
It is also the elimination of stereotypical language expressions and the elimination of symbolisms and "cliches" that embody in linguistic expressions the historically unequal relations between the sexes, with the primary and fundamental starting point being the elimination of the linguistic representation of unequal gender relations by our legal classes. In this direction is the incorporation of the gender dimension into the acts of every authority (executive, legislative and judicial) and its full reflection from a grammatical and teleological point of view as an obligation of the state.
Already with regard to the Cypriot legal order, I would like to say that I have submitted a proposal for a law proposing a constitutional amendment which would require the three authorities to apply the constitutional provisions on fundamental rights and freedoms in such a way that they incorporate the gender dimension in their actions 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), which requires Member States to take the necessary measures to eliminate sexist stereotypes and patriarchal social norms through appropriate legislative initiatives.
It is furthermore to strengthen at national level the already existing national legislative framework, which ratified the Istanbul Convention, in order to fill any gaps and weaknesses and to complement it with the adoption of specific legislation, such as the introduction of the specific offence of femicide, the criminalisation of sexism and sexism disseminated online, which has already been completed in Cyprus, in the context of criminalising not only acts, but also behaviours which are directed against the dignity of women and girls and which undoubtedly constitute forms of violence, which we have a duty to make visible more widely, through a "Criminal Law of Human Rights", as emphatically emphasised by the academic community in Cyprus.
Obviously, because in the Criminal Codes, women and girls under the age of eighteen (18) years do not occupy a visible place, since the connection of women to law and/or the gender dimension to law remains virtually non-existent. As 'feminist' legal thought rightly points out, more relevant than ever, law hinders the development of a woman's 'subjectivity', makes her subordinate, treats her as an object, prevents her from being fulfilled and ultimately deprives her of the necessary legal care and protection as a woman. A 'feminist' women's legal approach, therefore, seen beyond the classical positivist legal perspective, will make women a visible collective subject in our legal orders and will contribute not only to the prevention and suppression of various forms of violence in all its forms and gradations, but also to the understanding of women's value position in society, with the ultimate goal of ensuring equal opportunities and equal enjoyment by women and girls of their human rights without violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it is also the launching of coordinating state actions for the creation and/or strengthening of state protection structures, where victims will find multiple support for all their needs, as well as for the development and use of tools to assess the vulnerability and risks of abuse of specific groups of the population, always with the aim of early interventions.
I have left for last, the issue of the under-representation of women in centres of power and consequently the equal participation of women in decision-making centres, as a non-direct but indirect component of the whole problem. As you may know, the European Parliament, after ten (10) years of discussions, has very recently proceeded to adopt a Directive ensuring the representation of the under-represented sex on the boards of directors of listed companies, through transparent recruitment procedures and against sanctions, so that forty percent (40%) of non-executive directorships or thirty-three percent (33%) of all such directorships are filled by the underrepresented gender, a regulation which must be in force by June 2026.
This is undoubtedly a historic milestone in European legislation, which also opens up new avenues for national legal orders in relation to the controversial and much-discussed issue of quotas, which is a legal and, above all, constitutional problem for most modern states. Whichever way the Member States of the European Union (EU) ultimately choose to proceed, once they have incorporated this particular legislative measure into their internal legal order, i.e. whether they are prepared to subsequently adopt the necessary constitutional provisions for the overall equal participation of women in decision-making bodies and on the boards of directors of legal persons governed by public law, and whether such constitutional reforms will successfully overcome the torment of the constitutional court system. The fact remains that states, and by extension their societies, now have more tools at their disposal if they have the will to legislate either for incentives, or for a defined minimum percentage of participation of the underrepresented sex, or for balanced representation of men and women.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Violence against women and young girls under the age of eighteen (18) is not just another social phenomenon or 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. Violence against women knows no boundaries and has no limits. But it is and/or can be directed against any woman in any society, regardless of age, class, development of the country, culture or religion, and furthermore it can take various forms and manifestations such as physical, sexual, psychological, verbal or other. Any form of gender-based violence always causes pain, physical or otherwise, in any setting, whether within or outside the family. It therefore requires prevention and a coordinated response through policies and initiatives. Given that the hierarchical gender relations that promote violence "are not natural, but cultural and therefore changeable and reversible", we are all called upon to intervene in a decisive and coordinated manner and to redefine gender relations as an issue and a component of real equality and autonomy for all citizens in our societies.
Thank you.
(Text as sent by the House of Representatives)
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