EESC contribution to the EU's priorities at the UNCSW69

Key points

The EESC:

• urges the EU and the Member States to increase the pace of progress on gender equality, be more ambitious and vocal about the shrinking space for civil society and block any backlash against women’s rights, which are under attack, in particular by extreme-right political parties;
• suggests that the EU, Member States and political parties commit to attracting women to politics, including by considering measures to encourage the election and appointment of women to key positions, such as quotas, zipped lists, co-chairing, split terms of office and proposing male and female candidates;
• urges Member States to allocate sufficient resources to their national action plans to end violence against women and design them in consultation with civil society organisations; call for more actions to tackle online and economic violence, care for women’s physical and mental health, as well as ensuring the respect of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights;
• believes the EU just transition framework should include a skills strategy to address pre-existing gender inequalities, while bearing in mind women and girls in the Global South and in rural areas, who are disproportionately affected by the triple planetary crisis;
• calls on bridging the digital gender gap and include women’s perspectives in the design, development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms, to make AI socially sensitive and inclusive;
• calls for measures to close the gender gap in unpaid care responsibilities and help women stay in the labour market, including by providing affordable, accessible and quality healthcare and care services, as well as safety nets, according to national rules;
• calls for a strong and ambitious long-term EU strategy on inclusive foreign policy that puts gender equality, human rights, feminist diplomacy and social justice at its core;
• stresses the need for more gender-disaggregated intersectional data to shape and follow up on strategies, for the use of gender budgeting tools and a gender lens in fiscal policy.