The EU Parliament’s women’s rights committee organised an interparliamentary committee meeting on Thursday 3 March to mark International Women’s Day. Themed Women refugees and asylum seekers in the EU the meeting was presided by women’s rights committee chair Iratxe García-Pérez (S&D, Spain) while Parliament President Martin Schulz, and Nawal Soufi, a volunteer involved with helping refugees, joined Mary Robinson in opening the event. Mary Robinson spoke about the need to preserve the dignity and uphold the rights of women refugees and asylum seekers in the EU.
The meeting brought together MEPs, national MPs from member states, candidate countries and Norway as well as representatives from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and the European Commission. The idea of the meeting was to discuss how to combat violence against women refugees, their situation in healthcare and measures to promote their integration.
Participants include, amongst others, MEPs Ernest Urtasun (Greens/EFA, Spain), Barbara Matera (EPP, Italy), Maria Noichl (S&D, Germany), Daniela Aiuto (EFDD, Italy), Catherine Bearder (ALDE, UK), Mary Honeyball, (S&D, UK) and Malin Björk (GUE/NGL, Sweden) as well as members of the national parliaments such as Gisela Wurm (Austria), Anna Vikström (Sweden) and Petra Stienen (the Netherlands).
Related Links
European Union Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality