EIGE’s research shows the many ways digital technologies are benefiting young people in access to learning, friendship, information and actions for social change. It also shows that aggressive behaviour online is anticipated and normalised. For the EU to harness the potential of digital technologies for youth mobilisation, diminishing the power of gender stereotypes online and promoting the diversity of voices, opinions and gender identity are essential.
EIGE’s Director provided the opening remarks at a conference held at the Lithuanian Parliament in Vilnius on Violence against Women in Times of Crisis: Challenges and Potential Solutions under the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Gender-based violence EIGE supports EU candidate countries and a potential candidate in the development of first composite indicators for measuring violence against women. This activity aims to contribute towards a better development of gender statistics and towards establishing harmonised administrative data on gender-based violence. The domain of violence of the Gender Equality Index provides a set of composite indicators that can assist beneficiaries in better monitoring, evaluating and responding to this phenomenon.
Violence against women and girls and gender-based violence is a cause and effect of gender inequality and the power imbalance between women and men, and one of the most widespread violations of human rights. This deeply entrenched phenomenon requires a coordinated and targeted prevention and policy response based on reliable and comparable data and evidence. Over the past years, EU candidate countries and potential candidates from the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo1, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia) and Türkiye have strengthened their data collection on violence against women (VAW), contributing to a better understanding of patterns and trends and providing much-needed data for evidence-based policymaking.
As EU countries grapple with a new wave of Covid-19, police, media and NGOs continue to report on increasing rates of violence against women and girls. The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) call on the EU and all Member States to redouble their efforts to protect women's rights and mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women with concrete action.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common form of violence against women and the most extreme form of gender discrimination. It poses a threat to the fundamental rights to dignity, liberty, security, health and, eventually, the lives of women. EU Member States have not established a common definition for IPV, which means it is understood and measured differently across jurisdictions.
Femicide is an extreme form of gender-based violence, defined broadly as ‘the killing of a woman or girl because of her gender’. EU and international institutions use various terms to refer to femicide, including ‘gender-related killing of women’ and ‘feminicide’. In 2020, 47 000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their intimate partners or other family members. In 2019, while women accounted for only 19 % of total homicide victims, they comprised:
Rape is an unlawful sexual act and a harmful form of sexual violence that disproportionately affects women and girls. Rape occurs in the absence of consent, the voluntary agreement between participants to engage in sexual activity. EIGE recognises the need for systematic data collection on the prevalence and frequency of rape in the EU, the effects of sexual violence on victims and the actions of Member States to prosecute and hold the perpetrators accountable.
EIGE Director Carlien Scheele delivered a keynote address at the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union Conference in Stockholm, providing an economic perspective on gender-based violence to pave paths to prevention.
Femicide, commonly understood as the killing of a woman or girl because of her gender, is the most extreme form of gender-based violence, deeply rooted in the inequalities between men and women in society. It is estimated that, globally, around 47 000 women and girls were killed by their intimate partners or other family members in 2020, and around 2 600 were killed in Europe (UNODC, 2021a).
