Statement updated 28/02: Information about date of release of Roadmap corrected.
More than 1 in 4 women in the EU has a disability. Their rights and needs are often excluded from laws and policies, including those related to disability and/or gender equality. This happens despite women with disabilities being disproportionately discriminated against and subject to violence and abuse.
The European Commission’s President Ursula Von Der Leyen announced a new Roadmap for Women’s Rights in her political guidelines for the European Commission 2024-2029. The Roadmap, to be presented around International Women’s Day 2025 (during the Collge of Commissioners’ meeting on 5 March), is part of the mission letter to Commissioner for Equality Hadja Lahbib.
We, EDF’s Women’s Committee, welcome this. Given the state of women’s rights in Europe, we seem to be going nowhere, so we need a Roadmap. If the Roadmap is to lead us to an inclusive future, we should be on it.
On the occasion of our meeting on the 21-22 February, we call on the Commissioner for Equality Hadja Lahbib and the relevant services in the European Commission to ensure the Roadmap explicitly includes women with disabilities. We demand action now to advance our rights, such as:
- Propose actions to ban and end forced sterilisation of women with disabilities, and to ensure ambitious transposition and implementation of the Directive on combating violence against women, and of the Istanbul Convention.
- Set concrete targeted actions to reduce the poverty level faced by women with disabilities, including through equal employment and pay measures, and ensuring the amount of disability allowances received by women and girls with disabilities are kept regardless of employment status or the financial means of their partners and families.
- Guarantee funding of organisations and projects that support the empowerment, leadership and rights of women and girls with disabilities.
- Ensure meaningful inclusion and leadership in decision-making locally, nationally and at European level, including by enhancing accessibility measures for the participation of women and girls with disabilities in all issues, and investing in their leadership.
- Guarantee increased visibility and awareness of and for women and girls with disabilities. The rights of women and girls with disabilities should be mainstreamed and visible in the work of the European Union and across Europe.
It is essential that the needs and demands of women with disabilities are mainstreamed in EU policymaking and the proposed Roadmap is an essential tool to guarantee it.
Women with disabilities cannot be left behind anymore. Through this statement, we wish to make our voices heard! We expect to be visible in the EU Roadmap on Women’s Rights!
We should be on the road, moving forward, not left standing at the roadside. Our involvement is essential to guarantee effective policies following the motto of our movement: “Nothing about us without us”.