Economic Commission for Europe – Beijing +15 Regional Review Meeting

2 -3 November 2009, UNECE, Geneva

Item 4: Regional review of progress

Draft Speech

Mr. Chairperson,

On behalf of the Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities, Hon. Maria Rosaria Carfagna, I wish to start by thanking you for having invited the Italian Government to this important Meeting and congratulating you, Chairperson, and all the members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe for the way in which you have efficiently conducted the Beijing +15 Regional review Meeting.
I am very honoured to share with this session the progress and the efforts that Italy has made to achieve gender equality, by adopting and implementing equal treatment legislation, reforming or establishing relevant monitoring mechanisms, specific gender mainstreaming measures, action programmes, and social dialogue.
Gender equality is a fundamental right, a common value of Italy, and a necessary condition for the achievement of the domestic and international objectives of women’s empowerment, growth, employment and social cohesion.
The Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities is strongly committed both at the political and institutional level to supporting and achieving the implementation of EU gender legislation, and the internationally recognised instruments and agreements such as the CEDAW Convention, the Millennium Development Declaration (2000) and the Millennium Development Goals, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty–third special session of the General Assembly (2000).
Over the last years, the activities of the Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities have been focused on a wider concept of equal opportunities with the main aim of removing any form of discrimination and elaborating gender sensitive policies in many different sectors such as immigration, childcare policies, employment, gender based violence, education and the fight against stereotypes, health, equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, women’s participation at the political and economic decision-making level.
On a general note, over the last years, many Italian women have attained the highest levels of education, entered the labour market and become important players in public life. Nevertheless, inequalities still remain and may widen, since increased global economic competition requires a more flexible and mobile labour force.
In this field and according to the targets of the Lisbon Strategy, which also establishes the achievement of a female employment rate equal to 60% within 2010, the Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities intends to focus heavily on all actions of economic, social and political impact for the country, such as concrete measures to increase women’s employment and improving their reconciliation in working, private and family life.
Considering the current global economic and financial crisis, it is also necessary to integrate a gender equality perspective into the analysis of the impact of the crisis and into all policy responses to the recession.
The Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities intends to draft a national Plan for reconciliation between work and family life, where new provisions on welfare will be considered, and impetus to the growth of Italian economy, offering a range of measures to favour a greater flexibility of work and family time, according to the European and international standards.
Another main priority in the current political agenda of the Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities is the fight against any form of violence against women which are focused on interventions to identify better instruments to guarantee the necessary support to women victims of violence.
In particular, the intention is to deeply analyse the methods which have already been tested by the centres against violence of the National Network against Violence and the strengthening of operational instruments of the law decree number 11 /2009 which introduced the crime of stalking into Italian legislation.
A National Plan to oppose any form of violence, including domestic violence is currently under elaboration, following the previous consultation with the Centres against violence from the whole national territory in order to have a real and proactive comparison and acquire useful elements for the drafting of the Plan.
To eradicate all forms of violence against women is necessary, however, to increase international cooperation. This has been the aim that inspired the Minister for Equal Opportunities for the organization of the First International Conference on Violence against Women, which  was successfully held in Rome in September 2009, under the Italian Presidency of the G8.
Another priority intervention is the prevention and fight against female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice which is still widely diffused all over the world. It is the Minister’s intention to develop the knowledge of this phenomenon and the organization of institutional information campaigns to promote the national law number 7 / 2006 on the fight against FGM.
Another important priority in the Italian Minister’s agenda is represented by the actions to combat trafficking in human beings and smuggling of immigrants, since they mainly affect women and children.   In addition to training initiatives, awareness raising and communication projects on the different types of exploitation (sexual, labour, begging, etc.) to improve the capacity of intervention both of  institutional players and the private-social sector are involved in the fight against trafficking, many other initiatives have been undertaken in order to implement, at the community level, a trans-national system of cooperation to protect victims of trafficking, as well as actions  to promote communication and information both in the countries of origin and destination of  the victims.
The Minister for Equal Opportunities is also constantly committed to fostering the drafting of policies to diffuse the culture of gender equality, the elimination of gender stereotypes, the promotion of women’s advancement and empowerment in the labour market and their participation in the political, economic  and social life of the country, including training initiatives directed at university students, university staff  and women in general.

The Italian Government fully and wholeheartedly supports and implements the belief that the economic and social advancement of women is an essential prerequisite for the development of every country.
Italy is strongly convinced that this session with its themes will make an invaluable contribution in mapping a way forward for individual States as well as for collective efforts and initiatives for the achievement of our common goals of gender equality and advancement of women.

Thank you