Reports

In October 2023, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women denounced a
“global epidemic of femicide” (OHCR, October 2023). On September 20th, 2022, Mahsa
Alimi was murdered by the Iranian Regime. Poland enforced a near-total ban on abortion in
January 2021 and the American Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade in June 2022 while
Afghan women have been unwaveringly disappearing from public life since August 2021.
Setbacks and retrogression of women’s rights are not solely issues confined to outside Europe
but a pressing challenge to be tackled by all European nations.

As women’s rights are steadily being at best challenged and more often overturned,
the 2024 European parliamentary elections are taking place at a pivotal moment and therefore
will carry particular significance. In a context of growing popularity for far-right parties in
national settings across Europe, early polls suggest that populist and eurosceptics are likely to
play an increasingly significant role in European politics. This could lead to a potentially more
right leaning European Parliament after the June 2024 elections. Inclined to lobby for limited
EU involvement in national affairs and restricted European sovereignty, the growth of
right-wing populist parties is likely to bolster a growing axis of anti-feminist movements
heightening the current backlash against women’s rights in Europe and threatening to
erode existing achievements.

Gender equality is a fundamental value enshrined in Article 2 of the EU’s founding
treaty, the Treaty on the European Union (Article 2, TEU). As such, the issue has stood at the
forefront of many political agendas and European-wide strategies, aiming at tackling
discrimination, from economic inequalities to gender-based violence. The Von der Leyen
Commission’s implementation of the 2020-2025 gender equality strategy or the EU action plan
for gender equality and women’s empowerment (GAP III) embodies the European Institutions’
dedication to promoting gender equality and gender mainstreaming, as well as addressing
discrimination and violence against women. However, notwithstanding the accumulation of
political and legal endeavours, the situation remains uneven across the EU with progress
slowing down, stalling, or even regressing in certain areas. This results in a widening gap
between political ambitions and societal realities. Yet, recent public opinion surveys show that
less than half of the citizens around Europe agree with the statement that gender equality has
been achieved while many more expect the EU to take on a more proactive role and to
implement more drastic and ambitious measures to tackle gender inequality (Eurobarometer,
2016). As evidence points to the benefits of achieving gender equality for society as a whole, it
is imperative that women’s rights assume a central role in the upcoming elections. The
importance of upholding women’s rights advocacy within the European Parliament is not
merely for economic purposes, but rather to face the ideological deliquescence of the EU’s
founding principles.

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENCE | Women’s Rights Team 3

This report will examine what has been done already and what remains to be
improved in European politics on four major topics: (1) women’s representation and the
inclusion of women in political processes; (2) economic inequalities through the examples of
the gender pay and the gender employment gaps; (3) gender mainstreaming and intersectional
policies, and; (4) gender-based violence and sexual health and reproductive rights.