In an exchange of perspectives with the Council of Europe GREVIO members in Strasbourg on 20 March 2024, Director Carlien Scheele shared the agency's work in the field of gender-based violence.
Dear colleagues, good afternoon,
Thank you very much for inviting me for an exchange of views with you at quite a relevant moment in time. The EU’s accession to the Istanbul Convention and the European Commission’s resulting requirement to set up a monitoring mechanism and the political agreement reached on the EU’s Domestic Violence and VAW Directive. Two milestone moments where we can and should be proud of.
The EU’s accession to the Istanbul Convention and the new EU directive can undoubtedly bring significant synergies for the work of my Agency and your work at GREVIO.
In the first part of my speech, I will give you a few strategic yet concrete examples on how our work is so much synchronised with your mandate at GREVIO.
Firstly, we consistently use the Istanbul Convention and EU instruments as a benchmark for our research and data collection. For example, the indicators on intimate partner violence include indicators emphasising minimum requirements for data collection requested for the monitoring of the Victims’ Rights Directive and the Istanbul Convention. EIGE’s indicators are fully aligned with recommendations made by GREVIO in relation to the implementation of article 11.
Secondly, we collect administrative data on GBV covering different forms of violence against women and girls. Our administrative data collection provides a comparable overview of the extent, nature, and consequences of gender-based violence across EU Member States. Building upon the Istanbul Convention, we analysed and developed definitions and accompanying indicators, together with data collection methodologies on female genital mutilation, intimate partner violence, rape, and femicide.
Developing comprehensive data systems is how we will come closer to ending violence against women once and for all.
So we have analysed the availability and comparability of administrative data on VAW across the EU. From there, we have analysed the comparability of legal and statistical definitions at Member State, EU and international levels. Where we see gaps and inconsistencies, we have proposed common definitions and indicators of rape, femicide and intimate partner violence.
In addition, we have developed 13 common indicators for the measurement of forms of violence against women, based on the minimum data requirements in the Istanbul Convention and the proposal for the Directive on combating VAW and DV. This exercise strives for data standardisation, harmonisation, and comparability.
Thirdly, our Gender Statistics Database contains gender statistics, including gender-based violence, collected at the EU, Member State, and European level. It also includes data on the availability, use, and quality of support services for victims of gender-based violence across the EU.
And fourthly, we closely follow the work of GREVIO, e.g. when GREVIO adopted General Recommendation No. 1 on the digital dimension of violence against women, EIGE decided to continue our research activities on cyber-violence against women. We are currently working on the development of comparable definitions, measurement frameworks and indicators to collect comparable administrative data on cyber-violence against women and girls. In addition to this, an extensive trust and safety policy review of digital platforms was undertaken, followed by in-depth interviews with platform representatives. We found that there is no consideration of the gender dimension within the descriptions of penalties and sanctions, and no indication that considerations are tailored to cyber-violence against women and girls cases.
These four areas show how we can mutually reinforcing our work. I believe our work should be at the core of the EU monitoring of the convention.
Let me continue in the second part of my speech on how EIGE can further support national authorities in Member States (and on that note we also supported some of the Western Balkans countries and Türkiye) with our data collection on all forms of violence.
We need to be able to track a case, to disaggregate the data by the sex and age of the victims and perpetrator, as well as the relationship between victim and perpetrator to better understand the problem and to design and monitor targeted policies.
Let me start with some examples. In a few of my country visits to Austria and Spain I discussed with Ministers about the need to develop common disaggregation and methodology. They and their experts expressed their interest in working alongside EIGE to help support them in data gathering and promoting promising practices.
One observation from our work is, as you are all aware, that data collection remains a challenge – resulting in significant gaps, hampering our ability to understand the extent of violence against women across Europe.
Generally, there is no systematic and standardised method of data collection across the jurisdictions, and the data that is available is still far from complete and comparable, which undermines efforts to analyse the criminal trends and assess the effectiveness of measures in place.
We need to be able to track a case, to disaggregate the data by the sex and age of the victims and perpetrator, as well as the relationship between victim and perpetrator to better understand the problem and to design and monitor targeted policies.
Developing comprehensive data systems is how we will come closer to ending violence against women once and for all.
To this end we developed guidance on strengthening data systems on violence against women. Here are the five concrete steps we provided:
- Map data producers and users
- Establish coordination and a governance mechanism
- Establish standards for data collection: from entry, validation to analysis
- Establish and implement training
- And finally, report statistics.
in closing, let me present to you what you can expect from us later this year, We will be releasing survey data from a joint survey with FRA and Eurostat. After a long-awaited 10 years, we will have new EU-wide comparable data on VAW.
Secondly, our administrative data collection remains an ongoing exercise, providing a comparable overview of the extent, nature, and consequences of gender-based violence across EU Member States.
I believe the combination of experience-based evidence from survey data as well as administrative data will ensure we can accelerate progress on ending violence against women.
Then, towards the end of the year, we will host our second Gender Equality Forum in Brussels on 10-11 December, where GBV will be a highlight topic.
To conclude, we must continue to resolutely combat all forms of gender-based violence. It must remain a priority in our human rights and gender equality efforts.
At the Forum, we will present EIGE’s Gender Equality Index which will provide additional insights regarding gender-based violence and policy developments in 27 EU Member States. The Gender Equality Index allows for measuring, monitoring, and comparing gender equality progress across EU Member States. It also examines how elements such as age, disability, and education, intersect with gender and create different forms of inequality.
This year, Gender Equality Index 2024 Thematic Focus will examine gender-based violence against women.
To conclude, we must continue to resolutely combat all forms of gender-based violence. It must remain a priority in our human rights and gender equality efforts. The work that EIGE and GREVIO can do together will surely contribute to achieving this goal.
I look forward to exchanging views with you all.
Thank you.