Politics often seems like an abstract term, referring to something that ‘others’ do, that has unclear direct impacts on people, communities, systems. Political is Personal makes that link however, giving a voice to women directly and daily affected by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, showing how those ’big’ decisions have real, everyday consequences on normal lives, regardless of borders and walls.

Jean was delighted to host this important exhibition, an initiative by Sarah Arnd Linder which involves in-depth interviews with Israeli and Palestinian women in which they safely and freely share how their lives have been affected by the realities of this conflict. While the conflict has been analysed in great details from many perspectives, rarely are women who live this dispute given the space and opportunity to speak about the personal effects of this long-standing struggle.

Speaking at the official opening of the exhibitio​n, Jean said​: ​“I am honoured to host such an important exhibition that brings into the Parliament the voices of those who are not often heard. To Sarah I say​ ‘Please go back to these women and tell them: your voice has been heard, here in the European Parliament​’​. And let us not forget the ongoing conflicts in other parts of the world and especially the Syrian war, which so desperately need to be solved.”

The creator of the project, Sarah Arnd Linder, said:​“I’ve been asked if I have chosen only women who could tell horrendous stories, to shock people. But actually there’s no need to look for specific women as the tragedy and the despair is widespread.”

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Yesterday the European Parliament awarded the LUX film prize to the Turkish film “Mustang” directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven. With today being the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women this award was timely.

The film “Mustang” tells the story of five young sisters living in rural Turkey through the eyes of the youngest sister Lale. It is the start of the holidays and Lale and her sisters run to the beach and play games in the sea with some of their male classmates. This innocent event sparks the end of their freedom as children. Their uncle and grandmother beat them for their “immoral behaviour” and gradually transformed the house into a prison. The girls, who are aged between 12 and 16, are prevented from going to school as the house is transformed into a “wife factory” filled with cooking and homemaking classes. The girls start to be forced into arranged marriages with men they do not know.

The film is partly a response to rising religious conservatism in Turkey and shows how this disproportionately affects girls especially in regards to sexual relationships and marriage. Three of the girls are forced to have a virginity test at the beginning of the film and one of the sisters, on her wedding night, is taken by her in-laws to the hospital to be given another virginity test because blood did not show up on the bed sheet after the first night with her husband.

Over 700 million women in the world today were married as a child, classed as under the age of 18 years according to Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Child brides forced into marriage are often unable to effectively negotiate safe sex, leaving them vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, as well as early pregnancy.

The World Health Organisation estimates that 35% of women worldwide have experienced violence or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner, at some point in their lives. Violence against women and girls is a worldwide problem which cuts across every social strata and international border. Violence can be physical, sexual or psychological. In the European Union 43% of women have experience psychological violence from a partner during their life.

Some EU Member States have signed and ratified the Istanbul Convention on action against violence against women and domestic violence. However Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Latvia have failed to sign the Convention and 12 states, the UK included, have signed the Convention but not ratified it. Ratifying the Convention obligates the country to put the Convention into practice and take action to eliminate violence against women.

The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament call on the EU to swiftly propose relevant legislative initiatives on combating violence against women in the EU to establish violence against women and gender-based violence as a form of gender discrimination. Furthermore the EU must recognise the elimination of violence against women as a key human security priority.

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This article was written after the release of a new report on European health 

If you think that it is a right of pregnant women and children to be able to access healthcare, and that it is one of the most basic, universal and essential human rights, then there is bad news in store. More than half of the pregnant women seen by Doctors of the World (DOTW) last year had not had access to antenatal care. Only one-third of children seen had been vaccinated against mumps, measles and rubella (MMR).

Such are the findings of the International Network of Doctors of the World –Médecins du monde (MdM) who released a European report this month – “Access to healthcare for people facing multiple health vulnerabilities. Obstacles in access to care for children and pregnant women in Europe”. Their survey is based on their face-to-face medical and social consultations with over 22 000 individuals in nine European countries last year, including the UK. It is shocking reading.

 
I was one of the panel at the press conference to launch the report, as I had drafted a report on “Impact of the crisis on access to care for vulnerable groups”[i] for the European Parliament two years ago. The new DOTW report is important research and it deserves to be noticed and discussed by policy makers. Clinicians are not gatekeepers as some would have them be (nor do they want to be), but they are on the frontline, and we should not ignore their expertise.

Doctors of the World have a simple demand of policy makers: to ensure universal public health systems built on solidarity, equality and equity, open to everyone living in an EU member state. Many would see this as being fully in line with the International Agreements to which we are party.

Among other things, the report makes it clear that ‘health tourism’ is not a reason for migration – despite what much of the media and some politicians claim. Across Europe, only 3% of the foreign patients seen had migrated for health reasons and even for those 3%, it was among other reasons for moving – not the driving force. In fact, as the report points out, on average migrants in Europe have been here 6.5 years before accessing health care. And it should not be assumed that all of those people have an irregular migration status.

I have visited the London clinic of Doctors of the World and met clients who have a clear entitlement to healthcare in the UK but who did not know that. They do not understand the system here, may make assumptions about its costs, or have not registered with a GP (89% of those seen at the London clinic) – or have not been allowed to register. Access to healthcare cannot be portrayed as a ‘pull’ factor for migration.

Another theme from the Report’s launch was the impact of legislation that is driven by the politics of austerity. We have a looming public health crisis and yet the focus is all too often about who ‘deserves’ care, not how to provide appropriate care at the earliest opportunity. Punitive, restrictive legislation makes no economic or policy sense in terms of safeguarding public health, as the evidence from this report clearly shows. A failure to vaccinate children, for example, is a false economy in terms of individual and public health. Universal access to care, free at the point of need, is the cornerstone of the NHS, it is what makes it such a valued and envied service, yet we are hearing of mothers being presented with medical bills within hours of their baby dying: we see migration status and harsh economics driving out humanity and compassion. I cannot reconcile that with what I believe our NHS represents, or what healthcare anywhere in the EU should be doing.

Professor Lesley Page, President of the Royal College of Midwives, was also on the panel and spoke about the fact that 95% of MdM patients had had no previous access to healthcare. She said: “Access to skilled healthcare in pregnancy around birth and beyond should be a fundamental human right for women, yet too often services are either refused or simply absent. Legal, financial and bureaucratic obstacles are placed in their way, which puts many off accessing service. This has to change.” I agree with her.

The EU and its national governments have put considerable investment into the Millennium Developments Goals, including improving maternal health and that of newborns, yet pregnant women face barriers within our own borders, including within the UK. Some link the increase in stillbirths in Greece to the dramatic austerity measures there affecting access to healthcare. We need policy coherence not inconsistency.

DOTW’s report makes the point that we have seen cuts in health expenditure in half of EU Member States over the last few years and an overall rise in people not being able to access medical diagnosis (numbers nearly doubling in Greece and Spain). Restrictive laws are now seen as the main barrier to accessing healthcare among the people seen by DOTW across Europe (e.g. for undocumented migrants and destitute EU citizens, but sometimes even for nationals).

This grim reality asks real and challenging questions about who we are. Are we prepared to be humane, and practice compassion? Can governments deliver on the demand from the European Parliament that cuts to benefits and public services, should be assessed for their likely impact on individuals and on poverty – which is a public health issue. Restrictions on access to essential healthcare are also a public health issue, and should also be fully thought through before Governments turn their medical professionals into immigration officers and our hospitals into border-posts.

If we want to save money in the NHS, we should revisit the costs of PFI, rather than present a grieving, poverty-stricken mother with a bill for her stillborn child.

[i] Impact of the crisis on access to care for vulnerable groups (2013/2044(INI)), Rapporteur Jean Lambert

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Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege is this year’s recipient of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The European Parliament has been awarding the Sakharov Prize for 16 years to exceptional individuals or organisations for their efforts to foster human rights and freedom of expression.

Jean Lambert said “Denis Mukwege is an inspiring figure who has not only done much to help individual victims of rape in DRC but has also helped to raise the issue of rape as a war crime at the international level. He is clear that men cannot remain silent but must speak out against the small minority who can set their humanity aside and use rape as a weapon of war ‘

Dr Mukwege received the award during a special ceremony in Strasbourg today, 26 November.

About the Sakharov Prize

The prize is named after Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989), the Russian physicist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for his work to defend human rights and highlight the dangers of the nuclear arms race.

Supporting human rights

The European Parliament takes all human rights violations seriously, no matter where they take place. MEPs regularly highlight abuses, help monitor elections around the world, ensure that human rights are protected in the EU’s external economic and trade agreements, and award the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought every year.

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It was a miserably wet Sunday in Trafalgar Square, and to mark The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women,  (tomorrow, 25 November),  Women of the world and the International community joined together in the rain to support the struggle of women against ISIS in the Middle East. 

Speaking at the rally at the base of Nelson’s Column, Jean Lambert addressed the crowd, saying:

‘ISIS is a woman-hating, misogynistic belief system – and those women who have chosen to join it should be under no illusions. They are not partners – they are tools and ultimately disposable.

‘ISIS, like other similar movements, has demonstrated its contempt for women, through their kidnap, enslavement and sale.  They try to justify this on the basis of religious difference. It is about terror and forced conversion. I am sickened, too, by the way that the rules can be “adapted” to allow for slavery or temporary marriage to permit what is really rape and violence – meaning the perpetrators do not have to face the reality of what they are doing.’

The women in Kobani and Rozhawa (Syrian Kurdistan)  have shown amazing and unimaginable courage with their bravery and resistance to ISIS. Tomorrow, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we continue to campaign so that

• Violence against women is recognised as a human rights violation;
• Violence against women and girls is not seen as inevitable. Prevention is possible and essential

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On the criminalisation of abortion in El Salvador

I support the campaign by the Central America Women’s Network and its Salvadoran partner, the Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion, to end the ban on abortions on any grounds in El Salvador.

State prosecutors have used a constitutional amendment which declares that life begins at conception and have charged women who have miscarried or had complications in their pregnancies, or illegal abortions with aggravated homicide. When they arrived at public healthcare facilities, often haemorrhaging and unconscious, they were accused of provoking an abortion and were turned over to the police. Many of the women were arrested and taken directly from the hospital to the jail. Some of these women have received prison sentences of up to 40 years.

I also support the demand made on 1 April 2014 to the government of El Salvador by the Salvadoran Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion – ACDATEE – to grant pardons for 17 Salvadoran women imprisoned for pregnancy complications, which is supported by many thousands of people in El Salvador and internationally.

These 17 women deserve prompt, compassionate, and humanitarian attention. Within the framework of Salvadoran legislation including the Special Law for Appeals of Grace, the Constitution of the Republic of El Salvador, the Convention of Belem do Para, and other national and international human rights legislation, the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly and the President of the Republic have the power grant these 17 women freedom through pardons so that they may return to their families and continue with their lives.

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The cross-party resolution, co-proposed by London’s Green MEP Jean Lambert, comes just weeks after Christian Meriam Yahia Ibrahim was released after successfully appealing against a death penalty for apostasy.

“Meriam’s case truly shocked the world,” said Ms Lambert. “That she was sentenced to death for what should have been a private religious decision, and forced to give birth in prison, in shackles, was a clear violation of her most basic human rights.

“Sadly, she is not alone. Her case is just one of a series of judicial decisions against women and girls that criminalise these private and personal decisions and, in many cases, lead to cruel and inhumane punishments.

“Sudan really needs to commit to fully protect the freedom of expression, religion and privacy of all living in the country, in line with its commitments under international human rights treaties.”

She added: “It needs to repeal all laws pulling in a different direction, change its policy regarding the way women prisoners are treated during childbirth, abolish the death penalty, and end a culture of impunity for those committing human rights abuses, which would include bringing all responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur to justice.

“I hope this resolution passed this week with cross-party support makes the EU position clear, and will prompt the Sudanese government into swift action.”

For the full text of the resolution, see here.

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The capital’s Green MEP has thrown her weight behind a campaign being run by Cosmopolitan Magazine and victim support group Karma Nirvana to establish a day of remembrance as a catalyst for action to help stamp out the estimated 5,000 ‘honour-based’ murders a year worldwide: 12 of them in the UK.

She said: “There can never be an excuse for murder: but many women, often of South Asian origin, are being killed week in week out for the so-called ‘crimes’ of adultery or even seeking divorce.

“World leaders can, and must, say that this is completely unacceptable, and always pursue those responsible to the fullest extent the law allows, crucially taking women’s testimony seriously.

“They should also ensure support services are properly-funded, and are able to offer advice and practical help to women who feel they are in danger.

“Increased awareness of the issue is a vital starting point: that’s why I’m supporting this campaign, and I hope that the Government responds, and sets up a ‘Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Honour Killings’ soon.”

To see the petition, sign up or for further information, click here.

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Speaking at a conference organised by the European Network of Migrant Women, Ms Lambert said that London would grind to a halt without the skills of the thousands of migrant women working as nurses, carers, teachers, office and shop workers, engineers and doctors – and in many other professions and temporary roles.

Migration brings net benefits to all Londoners, but the anti-immigration and poor labour market policies of some politicians means we all miss out on what many migrant women have to offer, she said.

“The reality is that the economy, in London and much of the EU, is dependent on migration, yet too many politicians seem to be arguing that we should make it harder for migrants, even those from the EU, to work here in the UK,” said Ms Lambert, who is also the Green Party’s Spokesperson on Immigration.

“In fact we should be welcoming the role that migrant workers – and especially migrant women – play in making our economy work.

“We need to make it easier, not harder, for women to use the skills and qualifications they already have: far too many are working in jobs which don’t match their skill levels, and there are practical measures we can take to address this at national and EU level.”

The conference, which brought together academics and policy-makers – including Jitka Markova, the director of Tower Hamlets young people and women’s centre The Arbour – saw the launch of a new series of pamphlets about how migrant women are seeking to improve access to employment in the EU.

The series includes pamphlets addressing some of the most common problems facing migrant workers abroad: recognition of qualifications, how to prevent de-skilling, and how to set up in self-employment abroad.

For more information about the European Network of Migrant Women, click here

For more information about The Arbour in Tower Hamlets, click here

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Many women living in London, whose migration status is irregular, can find themselves in very vulnerable situations – unable to access essential healthcare or scared to report violence or exploitation because they fear their migration status will be more important than their rights as an individual.

Ms Lambert said: “Most women arrive here with the right papers but can lose their residency status through a change in personal circumstances, and then find themselves – sometimes their children as well – in a legal limbo.

“Others will have been trafficked here and have no idea of the rights they do have.

“The European Parliament’s view is very clear: we must not forget the dignity of the individual. Victims of domestic abuse or other crime must feel able to contact the police; victims of exploitation at work must be able to take action.”

She added: “We must improve the delicate balance between controlling our borders and upholding the basic human rights of those, often vulnerable women and their children, who reside here.”

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