Make gender-based violence a crime under EU law, MEPs say

European Parliament calls for online and offline gender-based violence to be treated as a “particularly serious crime with a cross-border dimension”.

MEPs have called on the European Commission to list gender-based violence as a new area of crime under Article 83(1) TFEU, alongside other crimes that need to be combatted on a common basis, such as human, drug, and arms trafficking, computer crime and terrorism.

MEPs also denounced femicide as the most extreme form of gender-based violence against women and girls, and highlight that denying safe and legal abortion care is also a form of gender-based violence.

Spanish MEP Diana Riba i Giner said, “The message from Parliament has been clear. We need more and better tools to combat gender-based violence. We therefore call for common legal definitions, standards and minimum criminal penalties throughout the EU.

“It is time to act to include gender-based violence in the list of EU crimes, and to present a holistic and inclusive Directive to fight what is one of the most serious and persistent human rights violations in human history,” she added.

One third of women in the EU have experienced physical and/or sexual violence. Around 50 women lose their lives to domestic violence every week, and 75 per cent of women within a professional setting have experienced sexual harassment.

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