A meeting of the Council of Europe’s main body for supporting gender equality has examined a wide range of issues affecting women. The plenary meeting of the Gender Equality Commission, held from 11-13 May in Strasbourg, discussed progress in advancing gender equality in Europe. The participants exchanged views with Ukrainian prosecutorial authorities and an NGO on the impact of the war in Ukraine on women.
The conference participants also reviewed the implementation of the Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy in areas including preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence, ensuring the equal access of women to justice, achieving balanced participation of women and men in decision-making, as well as protecting the rights of migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls.
One of the main objectives of the Gender Equality Strategy is preventing and combatting gender stereotypes and sexism. The Council of Europe has been working actively towards this aim, including through its projects in member states. Participants were shown videos produced by the Council of Europe Office in Georgia as part of the project on fighting violence against women and promoting gender equality in Georgia. The videos showed women working in range of professions, including writer, pilot, military master sergeant and marine mechanic.