Council of Europe

Gender equality is an important policy goal of the Council of Europe. Priority areas of intervention are defined by the 2024–2029 gender equality strategy, and working methods include intergovernmental work, cooperation projects and gender mainstreaming. Currently, the priority areas of Council of Europe work are:

  • preventing and combating gender stereotypes and sexism;
  • preventing and combating violence against women and girls;
  • guaranteeing equal access of women and girls to justice;
  • achieving balanced participation of women and men in political, public, social and economic life;
  • achieving gender mainstreaming and including an intersectional approach in all policies and measures;
  • protecting the rights of migrant and refugee women and girls.

The Council of Europe’s commitment to gender equality has resulted in a strong legal and policy framework in particular, including, most importantly, the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (Council of Europe Treaty Series No 197) and the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Council of Europe Treaty Series No 210) (the Istanbul Convention). The Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men was the internal structure of the Council of Europe responsible for ensuring the implementation of legal provisions and other developments in the area of gender equality.

Since the 1980s, the Council of Europe has provided help and assistance to its members in the achievement of gender equality. The Council of Europe’s transversal programme on gender equality was launched in 2012. Its aim is to increase the visibility and impact of gender equality standards and to support their implementation in EU Member States, including through gender mainstreaming. The Council of Europe has four structures focused on gender equality, discussed in the following sections.

Gender Equality Commission

The Gender Equality Commission was established to help ensure the mainstreaming of gender equality into all Council of Europe policies and to bridge the gap between commitments made at the international level and the reality of women in Europe. It provides advice, guidance and support to other Council of Europe bodies and to member states on issues related to gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The 46 state members of the Council of Europe include all Member States. In addition, some Member States have representatives on the elected Gender Equality Commission, of which EIGE has observer status.

Gender equality rapporteurs

Gender equality rapporteurs are appointed from among the members of steering committees, monitoring bodies and other intergovernmental structures of the Council of Europe to promote gender mainstreaming in all policies and measures.

Gender Equality Division

The Gender Equality Division is composed of staff members of the Council of Europe, whose mission is to oversee the application of gender equality principles and implement gender mainstreaming in all sectors of the organisation. In addition, the division has a policy unit, along with a cooperation unit that implements cooperation projects on gender equality and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The aim of the cooperation unit is to provide national authorities with the information, tools and expertise necessary to comply with the relevant standards in these fields.

Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence

The Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Grevio) is the body of independent experts responsible for monitoring the implementation by the parties to the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention). Grevio draws up and publishes reports evaluating legislative and other measures taken by the parties to implement the provisions of the convention. In cases where action is required to prevent a serious, significant or persistent pattern of any acts of violence covered by the convention, Grevio may initiate a special inquiry procedure. Grevio may also adopt general recommendations on the themes and concepts of the convention.

United Nations  

United Nations mandate on gender mainstreaming

AThe UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women, held in 1995 in Beijing, clearly established gender mainstreaming as the major global strategy for ensuring the incorporation of gender perspectives into all areas of societal development and promoting gender equality.

The 1997 UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) report elaborated on the definition and relevance of gender mainstreaming.

The Beijing Platform for Action, ECOSOC Agreed Conclusions 1997/2 on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system, and all other intergovernmental mandates called for all entities within the UN to take gender perspectives into account in their work programmes. Subsequent resolutions of the UN General Assembly highlighted the same principle, and other UN bodies have provided explicit mandates for gender mainstreaming in specific areas of work of the UN.

On 24 July 2013, ECOSOC adopted a resolution on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the UN system (E/2013/L.14), making the UN accountable for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, together with the 17 sustainable development goals, was adopted. With many targets specifically recognising gender equality as part of the solution to achieving sustainable development goals, there is a stand-alone gender goal (goal 5) dedicated to achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.

On 8 March 2024, the UN’s system-wide gender equality acceleration plan (GEAP) was launched by the UN Secretary-General as a flagship initiative to accelerate progress on gender equality across the UN system. When fully implemented, the GEAP will enable all UN entities, no matter their mandate, to support all 193 UN member states and other stakeholders to promote the rights of women and girls. The GEAP Secretariat, part of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), is responsible for supporting and monitoring the GEAP’s implementation. The plan involves cross-UN collaboration and is supported by other initiatives, such as the UN System-wide Dashboard on Gender Parity and the updated United Nations system-wide action plan on gender equality and the empowerment of women (UN-SWAP).

Commission on the Status of Women

The Commission on the Status of Women was established by ECOSOC’s Resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946 as one of the council’s functional commissions. It is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality, and the rights and empowerment of women. Its function is to promote women’s and girls’ rights, document the reality of their lives throughout the world and shape global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

In 1996, ECOSOC, in its Resolution 1996/6, expanded the Commission’s mandate, deciding that it should take a leading role in monitoring and reviewing progress and problems during the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and in mainstreaming a gender perspective in UN activities.

Every year, the Commission on the Status of Women chairs a two-week session that gathers all representatives of UN member states, civil-society organisations and UN entities at the UN headquarters in New York. They discuss progress and gaps in the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, along with emerging issues that affect gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Member states agree on further actions to accelerate progress and promote women’s and girls’ enjoyment of their rights in political, economic and social fields. The outcomes and recommendations of each session are forwarded to ECOSOC for follow-up.

UN Women

The UN General Assembly created UN Women in July 2010, deciding to transfer to the new entity the mandates and functions of the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, the Division for the Advancement of Women, the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. The assembly gave UN Women the additional role of leading and coordinating efforts to increase the accountability of the UN system in its work on gender equality and the empowerment of women. The General Assembly also decided that supporting gender mainstreaming across the UN system would be an integral part of the work of the new entity. Additionally, in UN Women’s founding resolution, Resolution 64/289, the General Assembly decided that the entity should provide – through its normative support functions and operational activities – guidance and technical support to all member states, at their request, on gender mainstreaming, gender equality and the empowerment and rights of women and girls.

Building on its mandate, the main roles of UN Women consist of:

  • supporting intergovernmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, and global standards and regulations;
  • helping member states implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to countries that request it, and to forge effective partnerships with civil society;
  • leading and coordinating the UN system’s work on gender equality and promoting accountability, including through the regular monitoring of system-wide progress.

Since the creation of UN Women in 2010, standards for gender mainstreaming within the UN system have increased at the global, regional and national levels (e.g. through the adoption of UN-SWAP).

UN‑SWAP

UN-SWAP was a landmark action plan that created the UN system’s first set of common metrics for evaluating progress in its gender-related work. UN-SWAP is a unified gender equality framework designed to promote accountability, common understanding, enhanced coherence, systematic self-assessment, and a steady, targeted and progressive approach to which the UN system entities can aspire and adhere in their work on gender equality and the empowerment of women at the corporate level.

Implemented from 2012 to 2017, the first edition of UN-SWAP focused on gender mainstreaming and planning and consisted of 15 performance indicators based on intergovernmental mandates. A second version of UN-SWAP was developed with widespread consultation across UN system entities and launched in 2018. It updated and expanded the first edition, building on lessons learned, making refinements and aligning it with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a focus on results.

Upgrade to UN-SWAP 3.0

The third version of the action plan (UN-SWAP 3.0) raises the bar for gender mainstreaming in the UN system, integrating actions from the Secretary-General’s GEAP and elevating the accountability framework requirements on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the sustainable development goal results for the run-up to 2030.

UN-SWAP’s secretariat supports UN entities in developing and updating their gender equality policies. In addition, it conducts peer reviews among participating UN entities. Under the umbrella of UN-SWAP, considerable efforts have gone into supporting UN entities in developing and adopting gender equality markers and financial targets to track and quantify the allocation of resources dedicated to gender equality. The UN-SWAP help desk supports UN entities in deploying gender equality markers and establishing financial targets. The markers are used to code or ‘mark’ projects, outputs or activities, signalling the extent to which interventions contribute to results or changes relating to gender equality and women’s empowerment. In 2023, the UN system’s Chief Executives Board for Coordination endorsed data standards for the UN’s system-wide reporting of financial data, with the gender equality marker as the seventh standard. This standard is being applied across the system, with a transitionary period of three years.