News

Egypt: Ashton announces four million euro boost to EU funding to support women's rights

20-07-2012

 

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton has announced €4 million of new funding for women's rights in Egypt, bringing EU support on gender equality in the country to €11 million. She announced the new funding at a speech in Cairo yesterday, to an EU conference entitled ‘Egyptian Women: The Way Forward’ in Cairo.
 
Ashton said the money would be used "to support the ID cards project that we have heard about to two million women across the country. It is the first and basic step to enjoy basic rights as an individual. We want to provide financial support to 18,000 poor women living in rural areas and 3,000 women living in the most impoverished areas of Cairo; and to work to reduce violence against women especially in urban areas,” she said in her speech.
 
She also stressed the importance of support for women’s rights in the EU’s cooperation with countries in transition. “We want to help mainstream gender issues in all the programmes that the EU has. We want to give special attention to women's rights in their own right and it already represents more than one quarter of our overall support to civil society in Egypt. We want to help promote women's participation in political life, to help with legal support to victims of violence, we want to help women in remote areas to learn about their rights and promote their access to microcredit and so on.”
 
She also said that “the recent Presidential elections marked a major milestone in Egypt's transition, as for the first time in history the Egyptian people had the opportunity to choose their President in a real and competitive election”.
 
Her comments came ahead of her meeting with the newly elected President Mohammed Morsi. She went on to say that Egypt has “an historic opportunity to draft a constitution to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to safeguard democratic processes and institutions”.
 
“I know there are many challenges ahead, I know how difficult it is with the economy, but I am here today to reaffirm the commitment of the European Union, of its 27 Member States - soon to be 28 with Croatia - to support your transition and the people of this country . And women play a crucial role in this regard because I believe women's empowerment is an essential component of building any democracy.”
 
Ashton stressed the need for ‘deep democracy’, pointing out that this was “not just organizing free and fair elections – it's about building the civil society and the institutions that guarantee the rights of everyone and guarantee that there will be elections in the future and people will have the choices. It means freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and respect for all communities”.
 
“Women's rights will be the litmus test of a successful transition. It is a long and difficult road and none of us has yet completed the journey on human rights and gender equality. It is a battle that must be won every day, with every law, in every school, at every election. We have to keep going,” said Ashton.
 
However she also cautioned that a lot still needed to be done. “You fear that women's rights are not a priority in this ongoing transition phase. And you are right. And of course that is wrong. The proposed amendments to the Personal Status Laws, the lack of language on gender equality or women's rights in the new Egyptian Provisional Constitution, the attempts to decriminalise Female Genital Mutilation are some worrying developments. This is why there is a need for strong Egyptian institutions, like the National Council for Women, working to protect and support women's rights.”
 
“The scarce representation of women in the ministries, their exclusion from leadership and political positions, and their small representation, only 2%, in the Egyptian Parliament show the many challenges ahead,” she noted. (EU Neighbourhood Info)
 
Read more

EU External Action Service - Speech by Catherine Ashton

 
EU External Action – Egypt
 
EU Delegation – Egypt
 
EU Neighbourhood Info Centre webpage – Egypt
 
EU Neighbourhood Info Centre press pack – Strengthening the Role of Women in the Neighbourhood
 
EuropeAid fact sheet - International Women's Day 2012
 
European External Action Service – Euromed and Women
 
European External Action Service – Women’s Rights in EU External Policy
 
EEAS feature - In partnership with women: empowerment through action

 


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