(Rule 52)

A3-0349/94

Resolution on violations of the freedoms and fundamental rights of women

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motions for resolutions by:

(a)Mr Papayannakis and Mrs Napoletano, on human rights violations against women (B3-0890/91);

(b)Mrs Breyer, on human rights violations against women (B3-1479/91);

(c)Mrs Van Hemeldonck, on discrimination against women journalists in Afghanistan (B3-1353/92);

(d)Mrs Ernst de la Graete, on discrimination against women in Islamic countries (B3-1640/92);

(e)Mr Glinne, on the need to ban the practice of excision or infibulation on women or girls in the European Community (B3-1148/93);

(f)Mrs Pucci, on female genital mutilation (infibulation) in Africa (B3-1162/93);

-having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having delegated the power of decision to the Committee on Women's Rights, pursuant to Rule 52 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Women's Rights (A3-0349/94),

A.whereas fundamental human rights violations against women are manifold, take extremely diverse and specific forms and deserve more attention from the Member States of the Union,

B.whereas European citizens must not expect their governments to do everything but must themselves take the initiative to inform the general public about abuses perpetrated against women and children,

C.whereas the European Parliament, the legitimate representative of 350 million citizens, is in the best position to take such initiatives, in cooperation with national parliaments,

D.regretting that the Committee on Women's Rights was not consulted on the Union's accession to the European Convention on Human Rights, but nonetheless welcoming the content of the report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights on the subject,

E.whereas women have a right to the integrity of their bodies,

F.having regard to the many instances of discrimination faced by immigrant women, in particular the fact of not being given residence permits in their own right and discrimination as regards access to employment and training,

1.Calls on the Commission to make proposals to the Council to promote the accession of the Union to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, so as to reinforce Community powers in the field;

2.Calls, therefore, on the Union institutions and the governments and parliaments of the Member States to:

as regards cultural customs and ritual mutilations

(i)systematically denounce forms of fundamentalist authoritarianism which infringe fundamental rights, including the extremes of physical duress, torture, imprisonment and death, notably where women are concerned;

(ii)ensure that the Union's foreign policy applies human rights clauses, taking account of abuses perpetrated specifically against women;

(iii)consider applications for asylum from women at risk of persecutions specific to their sex as seriously as traditional applications for asylum by men;

(iv)recognize the essential role played by training and information, conveyed through all possible channels: primary health care centres, family planning, health care at school, centres for immigrant families, etc., and to provide immigrants with the health care necessary to make it possible to eradicate all ritual or traditional practices which are detrimental to the integrity of the woman's body or detrimental to her general health and that of the children she bears;

as regards the systematic practice of rape in areas of armed conflict

(v)recognize that the responsibilities of military forces deployed in an area of conflict must encompass the protection of the dignity of individuals involved in the conflict;

(vi)consider the systematic rape of women as a war crime which should be brought before the UN ad hoc commission, at least half of whose members must be women;

(vii)make available the necessary funds to help victims on the spot (antenatal and postnatal medical care, improved hygiene and counselling), encourage the admission of women and child victims of rape in need of medical care and, finally, recognize rape in a period of armed conflict as a legitimate basis for the right of asylum;

as regards sex tourism, prostitution and the trade in women

(viii)denounce the practices of those European countries which play the part of 'consumers' as clear infringements of the fundamental rights and individual liberties of under-age victims and, therefore, to take all the necessary measures to ban advertising for sex tourism from the Member States of the Union to Third World countries in Asia and the Americas;

(ix)examine the possibility of a directive to penalize the activities of tour operators promoting sex tourism;

(x)develop, as a matter of urgency, a policy of international cooperation to be initiated by those European countries where demand for women from third countries has been growing constantly over the last fifteen years, whilst such women are living in a situation of increasingly severe economic and social marginalization;

(xi)commission studies (by a working party at European level) to enable a legal status to be drawn up for such women and facilitate the issue of residence permits - even if only temporarily - in their own names;

(xii)ensure, in the context of the agreements currently being drawn up on the opening of the external borders, that the Member States devote particular attention to the abuses which may arise from illegal immigration, international adoption networks and international prostitution and human slavery networks;

as regards pornography

(xiii)harmonize European laws - both preventive and repressive - on pornography and unify the struggle against its most extreme forms, in the context of the freedom of movement of goods, recalling that, in a field relating to Title I of the EC Treaty, a Community-wide approach is preferable to a treaty-based or intergovernmental approach, in view of the democratic guarantees provided by the control and vigilance of the European Parliament;

as regards women in prison

(xiv)redefine at Member State level the rights of prisoners, particularly of women and children, by revising the rules governing practice within prisons where such practice maintains discrimination against women prisoners (in the areas of sexual harassment, child visiting rights and the right to training) and denounce the violations of their fundamental rights suffered by women held in Third World prisons (prostitution, violence and torture);

as regards new reproductive technologies

(xv)take account through appropriate legislation of the legitimate wishes and expectations of women and couples with regard to technological progress, without prejudice to children's right to be recognized by a father and a mother;

(xvi)provide support for the training of professionals able to counsel and assist those seeking information about new reproductive technologies, so that all requests will be the outcome of a choice based on mature reflection;

3.Calls on the governments of the Member States to grant immigrant women residence and work permits in their own right and to abolish the discrimination suffered by such women, in particular as regards access to employment and training;

4.Calls on the governments of the Member States to conduct information and public awareness campaigns, in particular through schools, involving measures and actions denouncing human rights violations;

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5.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the governments of the Member States.