Equality « Advocacy International

International Women's Day - European Commission announces its Equality Charter

A few weeks ago, we highlighted the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life, co-authored by Ai Director Jeremy Smith for the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR).

On issues like financial (de)regulation we have been quite critical of the European Union’s role – see our recent Iceland posts.

So it is good to record positive news - the European Commission has just announced its own gender equality “Charter” to coincide with International Women’s Day. It is in English, French and German. The EU has really been in the lead over many years, in cajoling its member states into taking legislative and practical action for equality.

This new “Charter” (which is really more of a declaration) highlights in particular the issue of gender violence and equal pay for work of equal value.

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More and more European cities sign up to gender equality

October 2009 Barcelona and Reykjavik; January 2010 Strasbourg – these are just the latest major cities to sign up to the European Charter for Equality of women and men in local life.

Nearly 1000 towns, cities and regions have committed themselves to gender equality across the range of their powers, since the Charter was first launched at our congress in Innsbruck in 2006, and signed by Hilde Zach, the feisty and tireless Mayor of that beautiful Austrian city.

Drafting the Charter was not easy – it is quite a dense document (even I must confess!), which at one and the same time asserts legal rights, and also offers practical ideas and guidance. The aim is that every town and city that signs up should have and implement a real gender action plan. The Charter covers all of the different roles of the local authority – political and democratic representation, major employer, service deliverer, contractor… there’s a section on all of these.

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