WHAT’S THIS CAMPAIGN ALL ABOUT?
Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights & Citizenship, is holding a public consultation until 9 September 2012 on the rights of the European Union’s citizens (see: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/opinion/your-rights-your-future).
The feedback from this exercise will be used to shape the EU’s 2013 citizenship report, which will in turn help determine the European Commission’s agenda. However, Amnesty International’s concern is that there isn’t a single mention of human rights in this consultation.
We want the Commission to be far more proactive at delivering human rights to everyone in the EU. The EU already has a duty to respect and promote human rights and has the tools to do so. But it’s regularly turning a blind eye to human rights violations in the 27 EU countries.
So far the EU has failed to produce a comprehensive internal human rights policy. And what it has come up with is decidedly unambitious. So the EU is failing to make a serious difference for all our human rights.
Over the past four years, the Commission’s proposed equality directive which would fill gaps in existing EU anti-discrimination standards on age, disability, religion/ belief and sexual orientation, has reached deadlock at the EU Council. What’s more, EU anti-discrimination laws, such as the Framework Employment Directive, are failing to provide adequate protection. For more on our work against discrimination, see: http://www.fightdiscrimination.eu
In 2010, the Commission promised to produce a strategy on violence against women, which includes female genital mutilation (FGM), as part of its Strategy for Gender Equality between women and men 2010-15. But it’s now refusing to deliver such a comprehensive strategy (see: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/employment_and_social_policy/equality_between_men_and_women/em0037_en.htm).
For our submission on a strategy on violence against women, see: http://www.endfgm.eu/content/assets/AI_contribution_on_consultation_on_VAW_2011-2015.pdf
For more information about our work to end female genital mutilation, click here (http://www.endfgm.eu)
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