Amnesty International report: Female refugees face physical assault, exploitation and sexual harassment on their journey through Europe
Governments and aid agencies are failing to provide even basic protections to women refugees travelling from Syria and Iraq. Amnesty International interviewed 40 refugee women and girls in northern Europe last month who travelled from Turkey to Greece and then across the Balkans. All the women described feeling threatened and unsafe during the journey. Many reported that in almost all of the countries they passed through they experienced physical abuse and financial exploitation, being groped or pressured to have sex by smugglers, security staff or other refugees.
Female refugees hazardous journey through Europe
Nobel Women’s Initiative report: Women Refugees at Risk in Europe
March 15, 2016 – This report reviews the risks for women refugees as they make the dangerous trek across Europe. The report finds that women are vulnerable a bottleneck points along the route, and even more vulnerable when they reach reception centres that do not have secure and separate sleeping areas for women. Women also experience sexual violence at alarming rates and there is currently 100% impunity for gender-based crimes committed against refugee women. High numbers of refugee women are pregnant with no access to pre- or post-natal care. The report also highlights civil society organizations working around the clock to address the needs of refugee women in creative and innovative ways.
http://nobelwomensinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Opening-Borders-Report_FINAL_WEB-1.pdf
European Parliament Study: the Gender dimension of climate justice
This study requested by the FEMM committee looks at how women can be better included into climate Justice policy processes. Women are underrepresented in official decision-making with regard to measures addressing climate change and in international climate change negotiations. Besides, women’s rights organisations have not always had the chance to participate during international negotiations on climate change.
Gender and Climate change policy
EIGE Report: Men control the money in the EU
Men dominate central banks, finance ministries and boardrooms throughout Europe with only one in every 25 top jobs held by a woman. An in-depth study ‘Gender Equality in Power and Decision-Making’ by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), showed that while women occupy one-third of top political roles in the European Union, in finance they are much less well-represented. ‘The money belongs to all of us,’ says EIGE’s Director Virginija Langbakk. ‘Why is it that only men get to decide how it is spent? It’s like something out of the 19th century!’
http://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/mh0215090enn.pdf
IPU Report: Hardly any more women in parliaments in 2015
Women’s parliamentary representation seems to plateau, increasing by only 0.5 percentage points in 2015 according to a new review by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). Stronger gains were made in the Americas (+0.8 points), sub-Saharan Africa (+0.7 points) and Europe (+0.4 points); but those were tempered by meagre increases in the Arab States (+0.3 points), Asia (+0.1 points) and the Pacific (+0.1 points). The Americas remain in the lead in terms of regional averages, with women’s parliamentary representation standing at 27.2 per cent. Interestingly, there was a noticeable decrease in the Nordic countries (-0.4 points): that subregion has now plateaued at 41.5 per cent.
Report: gender dimensions of multinational companies’ operations in fragile and conflict-affected areas
A new paper by International Alert and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) suggests various lines of inquiry for civil society researchers to assess the activities of multinational corporations through a ‘gender lens’, highlighting several issues across the extractive and agro-industry on a thematic level.