In the shadow of Corona, women’s rights declined around the world. Many countries curtailed the right to safe abortion, and many girls in developing countries never returned to school.
Adina Nivukoski, student of European and international law
At the beginning of the year, I participated in the UN’s discrimination against women to the preventive committee meeting in Geneva. I was part of a delegation of European law students. I remembered Hungary’s speeches from the meeting. There, the position of women deteriorates, but the country’s representative directly said in the committee that it should be so.
In the speeches of Hungary, it was emphasized that women should not get a long education, because that makes it difficult to find a husband, and that the most important thing in legislation is to secure the position of the family and the child – the woman’s rights only come after that.
The speeches made my Hungarian students think. They argue with me about European and EU law in Maastricht, the birthplace of the EU, at the same time that the motherland is moving in the other direction. However, Hungary is also an EU country with which we should at least in some way be able to share common basic values.
My Polish student friend says directly that he has no opportunities for a public position because of his sexual orientation.
And it doesn’t get any better anywhere else. The roommate in my student apartment in Maastricht is from Poland. He belongs to a sexual minority. He is hugely interested in politics, but he says directly that in Poland he has no opportunities for public office because of his sexual orientation.
The last few years have been a dark time for Europe. Hungary withdrew its intention to ratify the Istanbul Agreement. It protects women from violence. At the same time, Poland tightened its abortion legislation even more.
In Poland, abortion is no longer allowed, even if the fetus has a severe developmental disability. It is estimated that in the past 90 percent of abortions were performed for this reason. Now, abortion is only allowed in two situations: if the pregnancy is the result of a crime – usually rape or incest – or if the pregnancy threatens the health or life of the mother.
In practice, there is abortion very hard to get. For example, there must be at least an ongoing police investigation into rape, and a person who wants an abortion needs a certificate from the prosecutor that the rape actually took place.
The strict rules also hit hard on women who fled to Poland and were raped in the Ukrainian war. If a refugee woman is pregnant due to rape, it is almost impossible to prove it to the Polish authorities.
Is it too much to demand that even within the EU a woman has the right to her own body?
The right to abortion also speaks to Italy. There are women seeking abortions face significant difficulties (you switch to another service), and pro-abortion gynecologists have a hard time advancing their careers. No wonder that 67 percent of them declare that they are also against abortion.
It feels like Europe is going into recession. Me and my roommate in Maastricht are both 23-year-old EU citizens. Still, one of us does not dare to participate in politics because of our sexual orientation, or cannot obtain a safe abortion. Is it too much to demand that even within the EU a woman has the right to her own body?
For those who want to become a member of the EU strict criteria are set for the state: the rule of law, human rights, human equality and so on must be recognized. But what is required of a state that has already been accepted as a member and is beginning to decline?
And it’s not just Europe that is taking a step back. The development of women’s rights is reversing all over the world. The matter also came up while participating in the UN education summit in New York (you will switch to another service) last summer. The Namibian minister stated that the number of girls who became child brides in Africa increased during the corona period. They no longer returned to school after the pandemic.
It wasn’t long ago when we were still rejoicing that women’s rights had finally been recognized.
Afghanistan’s women have been dispossessed almost all human rights (you switch to another service)in the United States was significantly limited (you switch to another service) abortion rights – and in Iran schoolgirls are being poisoned (you move to another service),
It wasn’t long ago when we were still rejoicing that women’s rights had finally been recognized. Now it seems that in the shadow of the corona era, a favorable window of time opened up for some decision-makers to run through legislative reforms that weaken women’s rights.
But luckily, not everything looks bleak. There is hope even within the EU. The European Commission is committed to implementing equality strategy (you move to another service) by 2025. As part of the project, consent-based rape legislation for the entire EU has been presented, as well as intervention in intimate relationship, sexual and online violence.
The European Commission also approved last spring proposal for a new directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence (you will switch to another service).
The aim of the proposal is to introduce minimum rules on the rights of victims of such crimes and to criminalize the most serious forms of violence against women and online violence.
That would be a good start. Now we are already cautiously planning that the EU could also ratify the Istanbul Agreement (you will switch to another service). It would bring all EU countries within the scope of the agreement protecting women – even those that are not interested in it.
Adina Nivukoski
The author is a 23-year-old law student who has seen how what was once achieved can be lost in the blink of an eye.
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