| dc.description.abstract | Nearly twenty years ago the 4th World Conference on Wom‑ en held in Beijing (1995) raised the global problem of gen‑ der inequality, which resulted in an international commit‑ ment taken on by almost all UN Member States to initiate a radical agenda for change. The European Union and its Member States committed themselves from the very be‑ ginning to deliver on the strategic objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA). This publication is the fifth report in EIGE’s review of the implementation of the BPfA in the European Union.
Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women are one of the major areas of concern of the BPfA. They are crucial for the advancement of gender equality in all other areas addressed by the Platform of Action. The Council of the EU has stressed that the following conditions must be ensured for an effective national institutional structure for gender equality— the placement of the mechanisms at the highest possible level in the government, the involvement of civil society organisations, sufficient resources and the possibility of influencing the development of all govern‑ ment policies.
This publication compares and presents the progress of Member States in the area of institutional mechanisms and gender mainstreaming since 2006 when the first report on institutional mechanisms was developed by the Finish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The main findings show that by 2012 all Member States had established governmen‑ tal bodies for gender equality and bodies for the promotion of equal treatment on various grounds. Notwithstanding positive trends in institutional settings over the last decade, the bodies responsible for gender equality are often mar‑ ginalised in national governmental structures; split into dif‑ ferent policy areas; hampered by complex and expanding mandates; lack adequate staff, training, data and sufficient resources; and experience insufficient support from politi‑ cal leadership.
The report emphasises several important trends. Firstly, al‑ though recognised as a fundamental value of the European Union, the status and profile of gender equality currently shows signs of decreased importance. Independent bodies for the protection against discrimination on the ground of sex are increasingly replaced by bodies for the protection against discrimination on various grounds. Whereas the importance of acknowledging the heterogeneity of women and men in terms of age, class, disability, ethnicity/race and sexual ori‑ entation is crucial to the recognition of diverse experiences among women and men, the consequences of downplaying gender as a structural dimension and underlying element of all inequalities should not be overlooked. The political, so‑ cial and administrative remit of gender equality has started shifting towards legal and procedural mechanisms address‑ ing discrimination at the individual level. Gender equality is more seldom addressed and promoted through policies and institutions that tackle gender gaps and the disadvantages of certain groups of women and is more often viewed as a human right requiring legal measures to protect individual citizens against discrimination. This approach marginalises gender equality as a political goal and undermines gender equality as an important policy area in itself.
On behalf of the Institute and its team, I would like to thank all institutions and experts who contributed to this publica‑ tion, and especially the Lithuanian Government, the Euro‑ pean Commission Directorate‑General for Justice; the High Level Group on Gender Mainstreaming, EIGE’s Working Group on Beijing Indicators and EIGE’s staff. We hope that the findings and recommendations of this study will give impetus for broader debates on the challenges facing insti‑ tutional mechanisms and gender mainstreaming in the EU today and will contribute to making gender equality a real‑ ity in the European Union. | en_US |
