OpenLobby.EU
Explore

European Network of Migrant Women

ENOMW

We strive to combat discrimination and promote the rights and interests of migrant and refugee women within the Europe through coordinated advocacy, exchange of information, capacity building activities, projects and events and representing ENoMW members at both the European and the National level.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Abir Al-Sahlani (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

22 Jan 2024 · Möte om ett jämställdhetsperspektiv på arbetskraftsinvandring i EU talent pool

Response to Amendment of the EU rules on victims’ rights

26 Sept 2023

The European Network of Migrant Women brings attention to the specific situation of migrant, asylum seeking and refugee women when accessing their rights. While the proposal for the revision of the directive includes dispositions related to ensuring undocumented migrants safe spaces to denounce violations of their rights, they are not sufficient. Migrant women, especially those in irregular administrative situations or at ris of falling into irregular situation due to dependency of their legal status with those of their perpetrator, must be protected by the immediate granting of a specific and temporary residence permit when they file a complaint. Furthermore, data concerning the legal status of the victim should not be shared with the competent migration authorities before the termination of the investigation, as it is the case in the Spanish immigration law (article 31 bis of Organic Law 4/2000). The taking into consideration, upon personal evaluation, of the dependency of the victim towards the perpetrator, is an important measure. Lack of independent legal status of the victim should be expressly stated as a dependency factor. Legal status should also be added in the list of the victims personal characteristics to take into consideration through risk assessments implemented by the law enforcement authorities, as well as in the indicators for data collection, along with sex and age. As the directive takes a gender neutral approach, it ignores the specific underlying mechanisms of VAWG and crimes that affect women and girls disproportionately, such as sexual violence, incest and pedocriminality, trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced marriage, FGM or femicide. Emergency injunctions and protection orders, aimed at preserving the physical and psychological integrity of women victims in these cases, must necessarily include measures to prevent perpetrators from harassing or physically approaching them. In addition, the directive should specifically mention that Member States must prohibit "restorative justice in cases of VAWG (following the examples of Spain and France). This is in line with the Istanbul Convention that prohibits victim-offender compulsory alternative dispute resolution, including mediation, in its Art 48. At the same time, GREVIO Committee in its 1st General report p. 28 notes that "lacunae regarding the ban of obligatory mediation in civil procedures have been consistently noticed. The revision proposal states that the Victims Rights Directive does not prevent Member States to implement specific protocols and measures to protect women victims. However, it should go beyond this and set an obligation for all Member States to do so, similarly as for children, especially if the specific provisions related to victims protection are not included in the final version of the directive on VAWG and domestic violence. Victims rights to support should include health services, including sexual and reproductive health services. Accessibility and free access should also be explicitly guaranteed in all support systems for victims of sexual violence. In terms of protection of children, the revision proposal should state that the best interest of the minor takes precedence over visitation rights when there are reasonable doubts as to the possibility of guaranteeing that such contact with him or her takes place in complete safety, both physically and emotionally. ENoMW welcomes the disposition stating that victims of sexual violence, VAWG and domestic violence should be interviewed by a person of their own sex if they so wish. No restriction should be added to this disposition. We also welcome the dispositions related to the allocation of sufficient human and financial resources to ensure equal access to justice for all victims.
Read full response

Meeting with Malin Björk (Member of the European Parliament) and European Women's Lobby

13 Jul 2023 · Violence against women, trafficking, prostitution

Meeting with Alice Kuhnke (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and COALITION POUR L'ABOLITION DE LA PROSTITUTION

14 Jun 2023 · Stakeholder consultation anti-trafficking

Meeting with Lesia Radelicki (Cabinet of Commissioner Helena Dalli)

23 May 2023 · INI report on prostitution / VAWG directive

Meeting with Abir Al-Sahlani (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur for opinion)

22 May 2023 · Talare: Prostitution: a violation of women’s universal human rights

Response to Preventing and combating trafficking in human beings - review of EU rules

21 Mar 2023

The European Network of Migrant Women (ENOMW) welcomes the definition of forced marriage as a form of exploitation, and the inclusion of stronger requirements for prosecution, monitoring and data collection in the Directive 2011/36/UE (the Directive). However, we are concerned that some major forms of exploitation are still absent, notably reproductive exploitation and sexual exploitation in pornography. As demonstrated in the 2022 report-study "Migrant Women and Reproductive Exploitation in the Surrogacy Industry" by ENOMW and ICASM, reproductive exploitation is a lucrative and growing form of exploitation that fosters trafficking and is driven by demand.The European Parliament consistently condemned surrogacy as sexual exploitation for reproductive purposes and a violation of human dignity (2015, 2017, 2021, 2022). In Europe, while many countries have outlawed surrogacy on their territory, cross-border practices systematically undermine these resolutions, which further highlights the need for the tackling of the issue at EU level. The methods used by the pornographic industry can, for a large part, fall under THB, in accordance with the definition adopted by the Palermo Protocol (2000): victims are recruited, transported, supplied and obtained for sexual acts, through the use of several forms of coercion, abuse of position of power and vulnerability, and the pimps achieve exorbitant financial benefits. Several recent cases against the pornographic industry (notably in France) illustrate this situation. The definition of the Directive 2011/93/EU which recognises that sexual exploitation includes recruiting, profiting from or otherwise exploiting the pornography of another person (in this context, a child) should be extended to all victims. Furthermore, the dispositions meant to tackle the demand for exploitation remain insufficient. The EC clearly states in its explanatory statement that prevention of THB is part of the scope of the Directive. Prevention cannot be effective without strong dispositions to tackle the demand for the buying of sexual acts, as it is stated in the Palermo protocol (2000), CEDAW General Recommendation 38, as well as the recent UN General Assembly Resolution 77/194 on trafficking in women and girls which clearly states: « trafficking in persons is fuelled by high profits for traffickers and demand that fosters all forms of exploitation ». The current text calls for criminalizing the buying of services which are the object of exploitation only when the buyer is aware of the status of the victim. This criteria is excessive and, in practice, challenges in proving its fulfillment will lead to the non effectiveness of the criminalization as was already demonstrated by the EC own studies. Another concern regards the lack of specific mention of undocumented migrant women and girls. This group is particularly vulnerable to THB and exploitation (Undocumented Migrant Women: A Neglected Chapter in Fundamental Rights Protection, ENOMW, 2022 and Recommendation on Protecting rights of migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls, Council of Europe, 2022). Therefore, explicit mention of their need for protection should be included and legal status should be one of the data collection indicators. Finally, the Directive should more concretely address the key role of CSOs - in particular feminist and womens rights organizations and service providers - in identifying and supporting victims of THB and their need for funding (Coalesce Policy Brief, Coalesce consortium, 2022). Indeed, while the Directive mentions that Member States are encouraged to work in collaboration with CSOs (notably to collect data and raise awareness), dispositions on funding allocations to enable their work are lacking. Measures concerning the distribution of the funds confiscated from pimps to CSOs providing support to victims of THB and sexual exploitation (as it exists in France) could be included.
Read full response

Meeting with Frances Fitzgerald (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION and

27 Oct 2022 · Proposal for a Directive on combatting violence against women and domestic violence

Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner) and Amnesty International Limited and

6 Apr 2022 · Cabinet Dalli invited Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to discuss concerns equality and non-discrimination CSOs are raising regarding the situation of people fleeing from the Ukraine

Meeting with Ciarán Cuffe (Member of the European Parliament)

9 Nov 2021 · COP26 and 'The political participation of young migrant women in the pursuit of climate justice'

Meeting with Ylva Johansson (Commissioner) and

5 May 2020 · Migrants’ challenges in the current COVID-19 crisis and their contribution to economic recovery

Meeting with Hannah Neumann (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and Heinrich Böll Stiftung e.V. and

27 Jan 2020 · Expert round table on gender equality in EU's foreign and security policy