Changes from plenary report to adopted text

Change 1

ChangedG. whereas women remain seriously under-represented worldwide at the highest levels of the judiciary and prosecutorial authorities, particularly in leadership positions such as presidents of courts, chief justices and heads of prosecution offices; whereas achieving balanced gender representation in these decision-making bodies must be a priority; whereas a gender-sensitive approach must be continued, even when the presence of women has been ensured; whereas integrating a gender perspective into judicial decision-making is essential to securing equal access to justice for women and girls, and requires assessing facts and applying the law without gender bias and harmful stereotypes, both in the decision itself and in the process by which it is made; whereas in 2024 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) issued General recommendation No 40 on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems, stating parity as 50:50 representation between women and men in all their diversity, in terms of both equal access and equal power within such systems;

Change 2

ChangedH. whereas the UN actively supports greater participation of women in the justice sector through dedicated initiatives and campaigns; whereas greater representation of women within judicial institutions is linked to more victim-centred approaches to justice and is essential to ensuring that victims feel supported and heard when they come forward and seek access to justice; whereas clear rules and strong legislative provisions, mandatory training on their application and awareness-raising initiatives on gender and justice – both for all professionals in the justice sector and for civil society – are necessary;

Change 3

ChangedK. whereas armed conflict, forced displacement, the consequences of climate change and humanitarian emergencies worsen inequalities and weaken protection systems, leaving women and girls at greater risk of gender-based violence, including forced marriage, sexual violence during transit, trafficking, gender-based violence in reception or asylum centres and sexual violence and torture used as weapons of war; whereas conflict-related sexual violence remains one of the most widespread human rights violations, used to terrorise civilian populations, suppress resistance and destroy communities, and may constituteconstitutes a war crime, a crime against humanity or acts contributing to genocide under international law; whereas the UN’s Women, Peace and Security agenda is central to addressing contemporary global peace and security challenges; whereas ongoing armed conflicts, as well as emerging and increasingly complex security threats, disproportionately affect women and girls and have led to a deterioration of their status, with detrimental consequences for the full enjoyment of their human rights globally;

Change 4

Removed(d) call for the establishment of monitoring and accountability frameworks to track the implementation of UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) commitments across all Member States and UN partners;

Added(d) ensure that EU and international instruments are complementary and ambitious, with robust and substantive provisions to empower women and girls and guarantee access to justice; stress that the right to legal aid and legal advocacy is essential to guarantee universal and equal access to justice for all and effective participation in relevant proceedings; stress, furthermore, that persons with disabilities, particularly women and girls with disabilities, face structural and practical barriers to accessing justice and public participation; emphasise the need for specific measures to guarantee their full inclusion and universal access to effective protection; ensure that the EU demonstrates strong leadership and adopts a unified position on inclusive and unbiased justice systems; advocate for comprehensive legal frameworks that protect women’s rights and ensure the full and equal participation of women, girls and people in all their diversity under both national and international law; call for ensuring and promoting victims’ right to timely offender-paid compensation within criminal proceedings and for exchanging best practice to prevent secondary victimisation, including through state subrogation mechanisms;

Removed(e) ensure that EU and international instruments are complementary and ambitious, with robust and substantive provisions to empower women and girls and guarantee access to justice; stress that the right to legal aid and legal advocacy is essential to guarantee universal and equal access to justice for all and effective participation in relevant proceedings; stress, furthermore, that persons with disabilities, particularly women and girls with disabilities, face structural and practical barriers to accessing justice and public participation; emphasise the need for specific measures to guarantee their full inclusion and universal access to effective protection; ensure that the EU demonstrates strong leadership and adopts a unified position on inclusive and unbiased justice systems and explore the possibility of implementing specific specialised courts for gender-based violence; advocate for comprehensive legal frameworks that protect women’s rights and ensure the full and equal participation of women, girls and people in all their diversity under both national and international law; call for ensuring and promoting victims’ right to timely offender-paid compensation within criminal proceedings and for exchanging best practice to prevent secondary victimisation, including through state subrogation mechanisms;

Added(e) take action to fully implement existing commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment, ensuring the protection of women’s equal human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination, to advance their participation in public life;

Removed(f) take action to fully implement existing commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment, ensuring the protection of women’s equal human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination, to advance their participation in public life; encourage and take action to ensure substantive gender equality and institutional gender parity at all levels of decision-making;

Added(f) emphasise the importance of supporting public policies that promote and support motherhood;

Change 5

Changed(g) emphasise the importance of guaranteeing women and girls effective access to justice at all levels, including clear reporting channels and the swift processing of protection and support measures; eliminate obstacles, particularly for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups of women, who often face barriers in accessing justice, owing to the multiplying effect of limited and underfunded resources within the justice system, as well as socio-economic and socio-cultural factors and intersectional discrimination; ensure adequate, victim-centred support and protection services in cases of gender-based violence, and prevent any form of secondary victimisation when reports are made to the police or during court proceedings; call for enhanced international cross-border mechanisms to ensure that victims of violence – especially migrants, refugees and people in need of international protection – can access justice across different countries; highlight that economic inequality remains a significant obstacle to accessing justice;

Change 6

Changed(i) ensure the exchange of best practices, including through judicial training, regarding the psychological, mental, physical, coercive and financial impacts of gender-based violence; strengthen and expand dedicated courts, divisions or specialised procedures for gender-based violence or designate specialised judges within regular courts; commit to and encourage the integration of a gender perspective in judicial decision-making; encourage the possibility of providing female lawyers for victims upon request; promote gender-sensitive, victim-centred training for officials coming into contact with victims, in line with their functions, including police officers, prosecutors and judges, to prevent secondary victimisation, tackle gender stereotypes and biases, and ensure respectful, trauma-sensitive, non-discriminatory treatment of victims;

Change 7

Changed(k) commit to ensuring access to legal aid for victims from the outset of civil or criminal proceedings and promote this approach globally, together with international partners; call for the incorporation of a gender perspective into all relevant policies, laws, procedures, programmes and practices in order to address specific barriers faced by women and girls, including limited awareness of rights, discriminatory attitudes and gender stereotypes within justice systems, and the insufficient availability of specialised services, particularly in rural and remote areas; promote the practice of assessing women and girls’ right to legal aid solely based on their own financial means, independent of their husbands’, partners’ or families’ income, which is especially relevant for cases of gender-based violence; highlight the importance of gender-disaggregated data on access to justice, case outcomes, legal aid usage and barriers, in order to support evidence-based policymaking;

Change 8

Changed(o) encourage meaningful participation of women at all levels of decision-making in foreign, security and securitydefence policy, as well as in conflict resolution, both in the EU and globally;