IPOV-RESPECTFUL CARE to Hold its First Virtual Meeting to Advance Understanding and Prevention of Obstetric Violence
October 21, 2024At IPOV Respectful Care, we wish to inform our community about a joint letter initiated by IPPF EN and supported by around 80 civil society organisations, healthcare professionals, and academics who advocate for women’s and LGBTI rights. This letter, addressed to President Ursula von der Leyen, expresses deep concern over the significant delay in the publication of the European Commission’s Recommendation on preventing harmful practices against women and girls.
This pending Recommendation represents a crucial commitment made within the EU’s Gender Equality and LGBTIQ Equality Strategies 2020-2025. It outlines essential guidance for Member States to address harmful practices that infringe on the fundamental rights of women, girls, and LGBTI individuals. Signatories urge the current Commission to adopt this Recommendation before 2025 or to ensure its approval by the next Commission, thus honouring the commitments previously established.
The letter further underscores the need to include all forms of obstetric and gynaecological violence, mistreatment, and abuse within this Recommendation, aiming to secure comprehensive protection.
We invite our community to learn more about this initiative and, if they so choose, to consider joining this vital call for action towards a Europe free from all forms of gender-based violence.
Re: Forthcoming European Commission Recommendation on Harmful Practices
Dear President von der Leyen,
As civil society organisations, healthcare professionals, and academics working to advance women’s rights and the rights of LGBTI people, we are writing to express our deep concern at the prolonged delay in the publication of the European Commission Recommendation on the prevention of harmful practices against women and girls. We urge the current Commission to adopt the Recommendation swiftly or ensure its adoption by the next Commission before 2025, in line with the commitments made under the Gender Equality Strategy and the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025.
Obstetric and Gynaecological Violence
International and regional human rights bodies, including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament, have all recognised these practices as forms of gender-based and institutional violence and as grave violations of women’s human rights, calling for actions to address them. Recent authoritative EU-wide studies commissioned by the European Commission and the European Parliament clearly demonstrate that practices of obstetric and gynaecological violence are widespread across the EU. These studies document the severe harm these practices cause to women’s physical and mental health, including postpartum depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. They highlight the critical role the European Commission can play in providing guidance to Member States to address these harmful practices. It is also crucial for the European Commission to support healthcare professionals who have spoken out against such violence and initiated efforts to foster positive change to end harmful practices.
Intersex Genital Mutilation
Furthermore, we urge the Commission to adhere to its commitment to include the issue of ‘non-vital surgery and medical intervention on intersex infants and adolescents without their personal and fully informed consent (intersex genital mutilation)’ as outlined in the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025. The European Parliament has already taken a clear and strong stance on the criminalisation of intersex genital mutilation as a form of gender-based violence and a harmful practice, calling on Member States to ban it. Intersex genital mutilation is a serious form of violence involving medical, surgical, or hormonal interventions carried out without the person’s prior fully informed consent, resulting in lifelong negative consequences for their health. It is a form of gender-based violence rooted in harmful gender stereotypes associated with women’s bodies and sexuality.
Filling a Critical Gap
Under your leadership, the European Commission has made significant strides in combating gender-based violence. We urge you to continue to address this critical gap in protecting women from violence by adopting this Recommendation and outlining comprehensive measures to tackle obstetric and gynaecological violence and intersex genital mutilation, alongside other harmful practices. We strongly believe this would substantially contribute to protecting women and girls in all their diversity from all forms of harm within the EU. It would also send a clear message that concrete progress on gender equality remains a top priority for the European Commission over the next five years.
We fully support the adoption of this Recommendation, which will provide effective guidance for Member States on ways to address various harmful practices, including those committed to in the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 and the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025. Furthermore, we call on the Commission to ensure that all forms of obstetric and gynaecological violence, mistreatment, and abuse are included in this Recommendation.
We call upon the European Commission to uphold its important commitment to assisting Member States in addressing harmful practices within the EU. The Recommendation will complement the recently adopted Directive on Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence by providing more detailed recommendations to Member States on actions to comprehensively tackle all forms of harmful practices. Its adoption is key to ensuring that provisions on harmful practices contained in the Directive, such as female genital mutilation (FGM), are implemented according to best practices and that gaps in the legal framework regarding practices such as intersex genital mutilation and obstetric and gynaecological violence are addressed. Many of us have actively participated in the consultation process for this Recommendation, including by providing extensive input on these harmful practices and best practices for addressing them comprehensively, in alignment with existing international human rights and public health standards.
We remain available to support the European Commission in its continued efforts to ensure that Member States effectively address all forms of gender-based violence. We thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.