Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-21-Speech-2-260"
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"en.20031021.8.2-260"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, culture and tradition serve as pretexts for the ongoing suffering of women as victims of violence in many parts of the world. Female genital mutilation is still practised today, as are stoning and sexual exploitation. All this is unacceptable for two reasons: these practices constitute violations of fundamental human rights and are out-and-out attacks on democracy. The European Union, therefore, must use every means at its disposal to fight these iniquities. The Union’s foreign policy is one such means, as Mrs Smet makes clear in her excellent and also very brave report, on which I would like to congratulate her. The European Union has indeed written a clause on respect for human rights and democracy into every agreement concluded with third countries. It has still not been effective enough, however, in combating violence against women. There is thus a need for stronger resolve and greater clarity in defining the commitments to be honoured by third countries in the field of women’s rights.
A carrot-and-stick approach to commercial and development agreements must be adopted in future. By way of a carrot, countries pursuing policies that yield effective results in combating violence against women must be rewarded via the establishment of incentives and more favourable commercial agreements. As for the stick: by way of sanctions, those countries which tolerate grave violations of women’s rights must submit to the suspension of the agreements which benefit them. In the latter scenario, however, the possible negative effects on the people of such sanctions must be carefully assessed.
Lastly, it must be ensured that development aid programmes include projects specially geared towards women’s rights and combating violence. Such projects must include active participation by local women. Indeed, the change in attitudes towards these practices must be brought about through an alliance with women who have been or are being subjected to this kind of violence, and who want to fight it."@en1
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