On the occasion of the 2021 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and its foreign network join the awareness-raising campaign “Orange the World: End Violence against Women Now!” launched by UN Women. This year, the campaign aims at preventing all forms of violence, listening to the victims and changing discriminatory social norms to promote effective gender equality.
The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures have exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities and contributed significantly to the rise in cases of domestic violence and abuse against women, girls and children in situations of armed conflict and humanitarian crisis.
Faced with these alarming figures, Italy once again expresses its firmest condemnation of all forms of discrimination and violence against women, an unacceptable phenomenon and a serious impediment to the achievement of gender equality, the effective enjoyment of rights and full personal fulfilment.
To date, no country in the world can claim to have achieved full gender equality: the entire international community must therefore continue to firmly pursue this essential goal.
The objectives of the elimination of all forms of violence against women and of women’s empowerment, pillars of Italian foreign policy and development cooperation, have been at the heart of Italy’s G20 Presidency and are among the priorities of Italy’s mandate in the United Nations Human Rights Council and Italy’s six-month Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, where Italy supports and promotes the “Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence” (or “Istanbul Convention”).
This commitment was also confirmed by the active role that Italy took, in response to the crisis in Afghanistan, in protecting and promoting the rights of Afghan women, girls and children, the safeguard of their right to education, freedom of movement and full participation in public life.
With regard to the internal organisation of working methods, on October 15 the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation adopted the Circular letter No. 3/2021 to guarantee equal gender opportunities by conforming to the highest standards for promoting gender equality, stressing the need to ensure the concrete implementation, in daily work, of the constitutional principle of equality, in terms of both the prohibition of discrimination and the active promotion of effective equality.
Italy’s commitment to the elimination of gender-based violence.
The protection and promotion of women’s rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as the fight against all forms of discrimination and violence against women, girls and children, are key priorities of Italy’s international action in multilateral and regional fora, in bilateral relations with other States, within International Organisations and in the context of Development Cooperation programmes, for the full achievement of SDG 5 of the 2030 Agenda, the 2020-2024 EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy and the 2020-2025 EU Gender Equality Strategy.
In this regard, last December the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) adopted the Guidelines on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, Girls and Children (2020-2024), drafted by AICS with the assistance of the Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGCS) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The new guidelines aim at strengthening the commitment of Italy’s development cooperation to the elimination of gender-related discrimination, through development projects and by defining priority areas of intervention.
Italy’s commitment to women’s empowerment is expressed through its strong support to the protection, independence and full human, social, economic and cultural development of every woman. This is manifested in ad hoc initiatives covering a range of different fields, from women’s health, maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health, to the fight against female genital mutilation and early marriage, as well as in the support to programmes fostering girls and women’s education and female entrepreneurship.
Italy has also joined the 12 July 2019 OECD-DAC Recommendation to end sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in development cooperation and humanitarian assistance. In this context, Italy has consistently supported the “zero tolerance” policies and the initiatives implemented to strengthen mechanisms for the prevention, reporting and protection of the victims. These issues are among the priorities of our current mandate in the UN Human Rights Council (2019-2021) and of the six-month Italian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (November 2021-May 2022).
Italy strongly supports international campaigns for the eradication of harmful practices against women and girls, such as female genital mutilation and early and forced marriages, by promoting and actively participating in negotiations on related General Assembly (GA) and Human Rights Council resolutions, and by making annual voluntary contributions to numerous UN agencies, strongly committed to the fight for gender equality and the empowerment of women, girls and children (such as UNWOMEN, UNFPA, UNICEF).
Italy actively supports international initiatives to prevent sexual violence in conflict and emergency situations, such as the “Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies“. Also this year, in the framework of the work of the 65th edition of the ECOSOC Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), dedicated to women’s participation in public life and the elimination of gender-based violence, Italy strongly condemned the violence to which women are exposed in armed conflicts.
Also on the recent crisis in Afghanistan, Italy has taken an active and prominent role in protecting and promoting the rights of Afghan women, girls and children, in order to safeguard their right to education, freedom of movement and full participation in public life. In line with this commitment, on September 21, Italy sponsored a high-level event in New York, on the sidelines of the 76th United Nations General Assembly, to reiterate the crucial importance of continuing to ensure the fundamental right to education for Afghan women.
Lastly, with regard to the internal organisation of working methods, on October 15 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation adopted Circular No. 3/2021, by which it conforms to the highest standards for promoting gender equality stressing the need to guarantee the concrete implementation of the constitutional principle of equality, in terms of both its prohibition of discrimination and active promotion of effective equality.
