 Two days before International Women's Day, the newly installed 105-member panel debating the future shape of the European Union, was assailed Wednesday for being a male-dominated club.
The violation of women's rights is not restricted to race, ethnic group or religion, said Anna Karamanou, chairperson of the European Parliament's Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities Committee.
She used the occasion of International Women's Day - on Friday - to warn of the danger of creating yet another EU outfit without adequate input from women. Karamanou wrote a letter to Valery Giscard D'Estaing, the former French president who heads the European Convention, for not having enough women on his panel that began work last week. Out of a total of 105 members, the convention includes 16 women. There are only 2 women on the 12-member executive board. "I find the unbalanced composition a very worrying symbol, as equality of women and men is a prerequisite for the building of a democratic and non-violent society," Karamanou told a women's rights conference. The women's conference debated rights abuses across the world and heard speakers from across the EU and elsewhere insist that if more women were involved in government the world would be a more peaceful place. European Parliament President Pat Cox agreed. "It is disappointing to note that the share of women in the European Convention is smaller than the share of women in the European Parliament," he said in an interview. (Agencies) | 3月6日，還有兩天就是今年的國際婦女節了。新近由105名成員組成的歐洲大會工作小組正在商討歐盟未來的發展大計，然而就在這天，有人對這個男性成員占絕大多數的組織提出了質疑。 歐洲議會婦女權利和平等機遇委員會的主席安娜·卡拉馬諾說，無論種族、民族或是宗教，都普遍存在侵犯婦女權利的現象。 她想要借著今年的國際婦女節這個機會向歐盟提出警告，希望這個工作小組不要成為歐盟中又一個沒有足夠女性參與的組織。 由于已由上周投入工作的歐洲大會工作小組中沒有設立足夠的婦女席位，卡拉馬諾女士致信歐洲大會領導法國前總統德斯坦表示抗議。 在此次大會工作小組的105名成員中，只有16名女性。而由12人組成的執行委員會中，只有2名女性的身影。 卡拉馬諾女士在一次婦女權利會議上說："男女平等是建立一個民主、無暴力社會的先決條件，而目前（歐洲大會中）男女人數不平衡的現象十分令人擔憂。" 這次婦女權利會議主要討論了世界范圍內的婦女權利受到侵犯的問題，聽取了來自歐盟及其他地區的代表的發言，這些代表認為如果婦女能夠更多的參與到各國的政府工作中的話，這個世界將會是一個更加和平的世界。 對此，歐洲議會主席帕特·考克斯對此表示同意。 他在接受采訪時說："的確，歐洲大會中的女性席位比歐洲議會中的女性席位要少，這一現象確實令人失望。" (中國日報網站譯) |
Updated: 2002-03-08 01:00
