Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-14-Speech-2-113"
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"en.20000314.8.2-113"2
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"Madam President, as draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities, I would like to answer two questions.
Firstly, what benefit do women in Europe, in particular, stand to gain from this charter and secondly, how does gender mainstreaming, referred to in Article 3, paragraph 2, of the EC Treaty, fit in with this charter? The issue of equality between men and women in Europe, in terms of statutory standardisation, is suffering under the rule of the restrictive headstart. The old equal pay clause underlies a whole structure of equal treatment legislation which now forms part of the
. These legally binding instruments have proven to be a shot in the arm in the equal treatment of men and women in the Member States. But as these directives and recommendations originated in the objectives of the internal market, it is only logical that they are all confined to the sphere of employment and working conditions. As was recently apparent from the package of draft measures on fighting discrimination based on Article 13 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, there is still great reluctance to view the equal treatment of men and women as an issue which also requires measures outside the labour market. This is a misconception in my view. Discrimination against women is a fact which, unfortunately, is inherent in our social fabric as such. This is why there is still a need to give the equal treatment principle a firm basis in law across the board. An explicit recognition in the forthcoming European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights of a wholesale ban on gender-based discrimination and with it, inclusion in the treaties themselves, would then also create the necessary scope for a new EU policy to promote the position of women in all relevant social fields.
Madam President, in many discussions on fundamental rights, the rights of women are often relegated to a specific rights’ category. Women as a social category are then lumped together with a host of others such as the handicapped, the elderly, immigrants, etc. Who am I to protest that one type of discrimination is worse than another? Thinking in terms of a hierarchy of fundamental rights is a trap which we should avoid. But this is precisely why we need to underline that women’s rights are not about rights of a specific type of human being which, due to their deviation from the male standard, should be entitled to special protection. Nor are we talking about the rights of a group, as if women were a national minority.
The rights of women form an integral part of universal human rights, fundamental rights or civil rights. Specific women’s rights do not exist. What does exist is mainstreaming a gender perspective in the discussion of fundamental rights. Issues such as the rights of the family require gender mainstreaming.
For the rest of my speech, I would refer to the written version which I have yet to publish."@en1
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