The Luxembourg Presidency of the EU organised in early February a meeting to review the European implementation of goals stated at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995. The Beijing confrence identified 12 areas as goals for improvement. Women’s health was one of the priorities.
Although the 25 Ministers responsible for Gender Equality in Luxembourg declared their commitment to improve the situation of women in Europe, “there are still many factors hindering gender equality” according to the European Womens Lobby (EWL). One area of concern already identified by Ministers is the growing rate of HIV infections among women, relying on the poor level of prevention.
EWL has issued a report assessing the different results achieved so far on the 12 goals set up in Beijing.
On health, they acknowledge that the situation has improved significantly. However, EWL identify areas where improvement is neccessary such as :
access to health care systems;
gender bias in medical research;
sexual and reproductive health rights;
gender-based violence.
The Beijing +10 conference will be organised in March 2005 in United Nations New York Headquarters and Luxembourg Declaration will be used to define a common EU voice on the topic.
