1) The representative discusses Romania's support for gender equality mechanisms and legislation, including a law passed in 2011 to protect women from domestic violence and Romania starting the process of signing the Istanbul Convention. 2) Recent legislative efforts in Romania include a new law aiming to create a gender equal climate and ensure equal opportunities, pay, and employment. This law has passed the Senate and is undergoing the legislative process. 3) While progress has been made through new legislation, continued efforts are needed such as public communication campaigns to educate women on their rights, and collaboration to implement solutions to challenges like violence and wage differences that still exist.

1. Harmonization of Gender Equality Mechanisms
Esteemed assembly,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Firstly please allow me to congratulate and say thank you to
our Turkish friends for organizing such an important
conference.
I am honored to take and be part of it. So thank you.
Before saying a few words about our today's important topic
as the membership of Turkey was raised several times
yesterday, I should mention that Romania is supporting
Turkey for its membership to EU and if we can be of any help
giving our own experience with the EU accession you could
count on us. In fact just a few weeks ago my Prime Miniater
visited Turkey reafirming the good relationships that exists
between our countries.
I am here today as a representative of the Parliamentary
Assembly for the Council of Europe and as a member of the
Sub-Committee on Gender Equality for the PACE, but first
and foremost I am speaking to you as o member of the
Romanian Parliament and as a politician preocupied for many
years with the policies for equal opportunities, women and
children.
I would first like to tell you, in a brief manner, how
gender equality, and all that derives from this fundamental set
of principals is impacting Romanian society, Romanian
legislation, and the general view that the government
administration has over the concept of equal opportunities for
all.
1

2. Romania has undergone many changes in the last few
years in the way both institutions and civil society work on
creating a true gender equal system. A few months ago, in my
capacity as a MP for reference for European Council for its
campaign regarding the violence agains women, I was
advocating and promote the necessity for Romania to start the
process of signing and ratification of the Istanbul Convention
on preventing and combating violence against women and
domestic violence as I storngly believe that along with other
states, Romania has to tackle head on one of the most
devastating problems women in the region have had for many
years: violence, on all forms from physical to mental,
emotional and economical violence, against women. As our
Turkish friends know Romania was directly involved in
drafting the Istanbul Convention and I am proud to report
today that officially Romania started the process of signing
the Istanbul Convention…and as I believe we are the 10th
Country from EU, if we sign and ratify it, it will be enacted at
all EU states.
By way of background I should mention that in the spring of
2011 Romania has approved o specific law that protects
women from any and all acts of domestic violence. We can
now say that we have the right legal framework that allows us
to better protect women against domestic violence.
Law now allows the victims of domestic violence to ask the
courts for a restraining order (or protection) against the
aggressor. Among major changes I should mention that
according to this law the violence
it includes not only
physical acts but also acts of verbal, psychological, sexual,
social and spiritual violence; the authorities are now being
2

3. forced to respond urgently to cases of domestic violence. The
victim has the right to a private life, dignity and respect of
personality, social protection, reintegration, free social
assistance and medical assistance.
I am very proud that at on Nov 25, the Committee for
European Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies, to which I am
Secretary, will organize in Bucharest, together with the
Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the
Regional Conference -"Istanbul Convention - on the way to
ratification" - as part of the Council of Europe Convention on
preventing and combating violence against women and
domestic violence.
It is my personal belief that there is still more to do
concerning the causes and effects of domestic violence in EU
and my part of the world.
As a Contact Point for the Council of Europe for the
campaign against violence on women, I discussed several
times with the members of the Government to reveal all the
benefits of signing the Istanbul Convention and to identify the
ways to enhance its impact to the Romanian Society and I
have to say that the results of my actions are encouraging.
Hence I plan to continue to address these issues employing the
help of all international organizations be it EU, UN or
international NGOs.
Thinking that gender equality is one of the basic
principles of the EU, and one that has to find itself deep
within the Romanian legislation, I made it as one of my
priority for this legislative year to initialize a major piece of
legislation that provides the requirements for Romanian
3

4. institutions to work together toward creating and ensuring a
gender equal climate, especially concerning EU principles
such as equal pay for equal value work, economical
independence for women and equal employment
opportunities for both men and women.
I am happy to report that this particular piece of legislation
has been passed by the first Chamber of Parliament, the
Senate, and is now undergoing the legislative process within
the decisive Chamber of Parliament, the Chamber of
Deputies, of which I myself am a member. And in the last 2
days has been positively approved by 2 comissions in rhe
Deputy Chamber...so I am confident that by the end of this
year this major piece of legislation that I initiated and is being
supported by more than 80 MP s from all political parties will
be entering into effect. And we yesterday we were talking
about how more women should be given a chance to either
run for an office or assume a more leadership role I should tell
you how I got many of my colleagues to sign and support this
piece of legislation: I was telling them that if they will not
sign it and vote it I will go to the districts where they are MPs
and I will make it clear that they do not support equal
opportunities…..and I will like to see if they will take the
chance of either to upset the women voters and women party
members and supporters (as they will campaign by themselves
and will lose!!!).
I strongly believe that legislative change is the first
step towards a united front against any form of gender
discrimination, being that domestic violence, sexual
exploitation or harassment, unequal pay or unequal
education opportunities.
4

5. The second step is the implementation part of the
legislation which takes more time and effort and can
encounter serious social resistance.
It is encouraging to see that many European
countries, such as Romania, are changing the way they
approach gender equality through legislation and
harmonized regional gender equality mechanisms. But
sadly, this is not enough.
I think that one of the most important actions we must
take, as a common force, is a coordinated effort of public
communication that targets the vulnerable categories,
especially women. It is my opinion that we have to fight in
order to tell women, especially those who live in the rural
areas, what their rights are, what their opportunities are, and
what new legislation can do to improve their way of life.
We need to create strong institutions that can easily
collaborate in order to react to gender discrimination, we need
also to take efforts to educate women at very young ages on
what their rights are only then they will become empowered,
strong and equalWe have to hold in mind that without action,
legislation can only do so much. I appreciate that we need to
collaborate more often through symposiums and round tables
such as the one is taking place today if we want to implement
a common solution to a common problem.
Gender inequality is far from being eradicated, a
large percentage of violence as a whole is still perpetuated
towards women, and there are still considerable amounts
of wage differences, for the same work value. All these
challenges that we face, including the need to efficiently
communicate women’s rights concerning gender equality are
being addressed by European legislation and by national
5

6. legislations around Europe not unlike the law project I
initiated come this spring.
If you allow me a brief summary of some important EU
initiatives showing commitment to promoting equal
opportunities and no patience or marsey for any form of
violence, where all key EU players shared a common
approach, recognizing violence against women as a violation
of human rights and an obstacle to gender equality.
1. The Directive on minimum standards for victims of
crime was adoptedby the European Parliamentand
the Council. (that must be implemented at national level
by 16 November 2015 at the latest).
2. The Regulation on mutual recognition of protection
measures in civil matters - is still under negotiation
between the Council and the European Parliament.
3. At UN level, the General Assembly adopted a resolution
at the end of 2012 on ‘Intensification of efforts to
eliminate all forms of violence against women’. In this
line on 8 March Romania promulgated the changes
made to law 217/2003 on preventing and combating
domestic violence,
4. Towards the eradication of trafficking in human
beings - the ‘EU Strategy towards the Eradication of
Trafficking in Human Beings (2012-2016).
5. Violence against women: I want to mention the fruitful
activity developed during Cypriot Presidency in this field
:
a. The Conference in November 2012 which provides
the first report to deliver a full set of comparable
and reliable data on support services for women
6

7. victims of violence in the 27 EU Member States
and Croatia.
b. On 6 December 2012 EPSCO Council adopted
conclusions on Combating Violence Against
Women and the Provision of Support Services
for Victims of Domestic Violence in order to
review the
c. The Directive 2012/29/EU established a minimum
standards on the rights, support and protection of
crime as well as the European protection order in
civil matters.
And of course the Istanbul Convention.
One may say that gender equality can only exist if
both genders are able to share power and influence as well
as to gain individual independence by its own work and
revenue.
Access to education and opportunities to valorize
personal gifts and talents is also important.
Education, as discussed yesterday is the key and as
my grandmother used to tell me, a girl from a village who
rise to be accepted to the top law schools in the world:
what you have in your head and in your heart nobody can
take it away from you!
Sharing responsibility with regard to children rising and
homework is often an underrated behavior for a longlasting equal opportunities framework. In this picture
there is no place for violence, intimidation, constraint or
coercion.
To summarize, I am certain that gaps between genders
will continuously decrease if we work together to build a
7

8. common public policy concerning a transnational issue, such
as gender discrimination of all kinds.
European legislation must be quickly, efficiently and
uniformly implemented by national parliaments and thus all
European women will be able to benefit from the common
principle and the fundamental right that the EU holds high:
Equality between men and women.
Thank you for listening,
Ana Birchall
MEP
8