Gender equality

The European Commission wishes to make training material available which will be helpful both to legal practitioners for their own use and to the trainers of legal practitioners as a resource for their work in the field of gender equality.

Seminars on EU gender equality legislation (European Commission)

Seminars on the EU legislation on equality between women and men have been organised for the Commission as part of the Progress financial programme. The principle of equality between women and men has been enshrined in EU law since the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. Since then, a considerable body of legislation has been passed on matters such as equal treatment in employment and occupation, health protection in the context of maternity, parental leave and access to goods and services. The background documentation and the speakers' contributions for the seminars are available here.

Handbooks on various issues relating to gender equality (European Commission)

Legal practitioners wishing to improve their knowledge and understanding of gender equality can find further information and analysis in several handbooks produced for the Commission, which are all available in English. The handbooks cover the following topics:

The fight against female genital mutilation

'United to end female genital mutilation' (UEFGM) e-learning tool

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is internationally recognised as a violation of women's human rights and a form of child abuse. Like any other form of gender-based violence, it constitutes a breach of the fundamental right to life, liberty, security, dignity, equality between women and men, non-discrimination and physical and mental integrity, as defined by the World Health Organisation.

The 'United to end female genital mutilation' (UEFGM) e-learning course addresses the issue of FGM in the context of health and asylum services. Legal practitioners may be interested in the first two foundation modules, which provide an introduction to understanding FGM as a human rights issue and as a specific form of gender‑based violence. Legal practitioners specialising in asylum law may be interested in the two specialised modules in the area of asylum.

The course is available in several languages (English, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, French, Swedish, Spanish, Dutch, German).

Last update: 07/10/2020

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