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Strasbourg, 25 May 2010 MEG 7 (2010) 2 Action Plan 7TH COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS RESPONSIBLE FOR EQUALITY BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN ACTION PLAN “TAKING UP THE CHALLENGE OF THE ACHIEVEMENT OF DE JURE AND DE FACTO GENDER EQUALITY” COUNCILOF EUROPECONSEILDE L’EUROPE MEG 7 (2010) 2 Action Plan 3 ACTION PLAN “TAKING UP THE CHALLENGE OF THE ACHIEVEMENT OF DE JURE AND DE FACTO GENDER EQUALITY” The Ministers of the states participating in the 7th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible of Equality between Women and Men, (Baku, 24-25 May 2010) ; stressing the importance of the Council of Europe’s activities to promote and protect women’s human rights and to combat any direct or indirect sex and gender-based discrimination; convinced that the Council of Europe should continue its pioneering work to promote de jure and de facto gender equality in all spheres of society in its member states; particularly concerned about identifying and analysing the strategies and tools which are available to promote real equality between women and men; agree on the following Action Plan for achieving de jure and de facto gender equality in all spheres of society, and invite the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to make all appropriate arrangements for the implementation of this Action Plan, through the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men, in co-operation and/or close consultation with other bodies of the Organisation as well as with other relevant international governmental and non- governmental organisations, including by allocating adequate resources.
I.
GENDER MAINSTREAMING AND POSITIVE ACTION a. b. c. d. e. continue action to promote and develop the use of the gender mainstreaming strategy in all programmes and activities within the Council of Europe, and in this context develop and/or undertake activities in co-operation with other Council of Europe steering committees and bodies in different policy fields; follow up their implementation and assess their impact on achieving gender equality; the implementation of Recommendation CM/Rec (2007) 13 on gender follow mainstreaming in education and Recommendation CM/Rec (2008) 1 on the inclusion of gender differences in the health policy; step up work to promote the effective implementation of gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting strategies in member states, by preparing a recommendation in this field; collect information on the results of positive action in order to examine their efficacy in accelerating the achievement of de facto gender equality and for this purpose draft guidelines on the efficient use of positive action; analyse the impact of the economic crisis on the realisation of de facto gender equality and develop activities to counter its negative consequences, especially in the labour market, including to overcome the gender pay gap.
II.
GENDER EQUALITY STANDARDS AND MECHANISMS a. develop further activities with a view to promoting the implementation of common European gender equality standards and mechanisms in member states as set out in 4 MEG 7 (2010) 2 Action Plan Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)17 on gender equality standards and mechanisms and in line with the follow-up of the Beijing Platform for Action; b. follow the development of national legislation, national action plans and national institutional mechanisms for gender equality in member states.
III.
EQUAL PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN AND MEN IN DECISION MAKING IN ALL SPHERES OF SOCIETY a. b. c. its follow-up activities to Recommendation Rec(2003)3 on balanced continue participation of women and men in political and public decision making with a view to promoting the implementation of common standards throughout member states and promote women’s participation through the development of activities aimed at encouraging women and men to share equally responsibilities and benefits of paid and unpaid work, in particular home and family responsibilities; conclude the preparations for the adoption of the draft Recommendation on the role of women and men in conflict prevention and resolution and in peace building and, following its adoption, undertake follow-up activities in this field; develop activities to monitor the equal access to justice of both women and men at national and international levels, in particular to the European Court of Human Rights, prepare an analysis of the data collected and develop, if necessary, awareness raising activities to promote women’s access to justice.
IV.

THE ROLE OF MEN IN ACHIEVING DE FACTO GENDER EQUALITY a. develop activities focusing on the positive role of men in the achievement of de facto gender equality; such as the drafting of a handbook on good practice on ways to promote men’s participation in, and responsibility for, achieving gender equality in all spheres of society in partnership with women, and raise awareness of men’s responsibilities in this regard.
V. COMBATING GENDER STEREOTYPES IN MEDIA AND IN EDUCATION a. b. c. d. draft a handbook on strategies to combat gender stereotypes in the media in co- operation with the Steering Committee on the Media and New Communication Services (CDMC); identify and disseminate good practice in relation to codes of conduct adopted by the media to address gender stereotypes; develop further activities in co-operation with the Steering Committee for Education (CDED) and the Youth Directorate of the Council of Europe for the elimination of gender stereotypes in formal and informal education; with reference to Recommendation n°R(90)4 on the elimination of sexism in language, encourage the use of non-sexist language in particular by promoting its use in national official documents.
VI.
PREVENTING AND COMBATING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN a. promote the finalisation of the drafting of the future Council of Europe convention to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence and promote the respect of the standards contained in the convention; MEG 7 (2010) 2 Action Plan 5 b. c. analyse the consequences of the economic crisis on violence against women, in particular domestic violence and propose specific measures to prevent and combat this phenomenon; examine the long-term consequences of violence against women on women’s health, in particular with regard to HIV/AIDS and propose specific measures in the field.
VII.
COMBATING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST VULNERABLE GROUPS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS Migrant women and girls a. b. having regard to the importance of achieving gender equality for migrant women and girls in all areas and at all levels of society, draft a specific recommendation on equality for migrant women and girls; develop activities to prevent and combat discrimination against migrant women and girls and promote their participation in political, public and economic life, including by identifying positive action plans and disseminating good practice in this area; Women and girls discriminated on grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity and transgender persons considering the importance of preventing and combating all forms of discrimination against women, undertake research on the situation of women and girls discriminated on grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity and transgender persons, in order to draft specific guidelines on preventing of discrimination against them to promote the enjoyment of their rights in all sectors of society, and ensure the achievement of gender equality in this field collaborating as appropriate with the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH).
combating forms and all Women and girls with disabilities having regard to the importance of preventing and combating discrimination against women and girls with disabilities, collect and disseminate good practice aiming to promote their full participation in all spheres of society and prepare a handbook on this topic.

Other vulnerable groups of women and girls explore needs for specific measures to combat discrimination against other vulnerable groups of women and girls.