30 March 2005  

Re: Report on Equality between Women and Men

Dear Mr. Commissioner,

Let me first congratulate you on your important position on behalf of ASTRA – Central and Eastern European Women’s Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.
We wish you a lot of success in the field of gender equality, so important for European women.  

ASTRA consists of more than twenty organizations in Europe , and works to advance and promote sexual and reproductive health and rights by bridging the gaps between women’s issues, health issues and human rights issues, as well as monitoring state compliance in this field with international human rights treaties.  

I am writing to you in connection with the 2005 Commission Report on Equality between Women and Men. Although the report addresses a number of inequalities between men and women, one very important issue is missing.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights are not addressed at all in the report although women in many countries of the EU, especially of the new member states, are seriously affected by  the lack of good laws and policies, causing gender inequalities and discrimination of women.  

For instance, women in Poland not only suffer as a result of restrictive anti-abortion law but also are denied  access to modern contraceptive methods because of financial inaccessibility, lack of information or because they receive misleading information. Accurate sexual education as well as access to reproductive health services is also limited ( Poland , Slovakia , Lithuania ). Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV/AIDS rates have dramatically risen in some countries of the EU (Estonia, Latvia) and it is generally recognized that women are particularly vulnerable to infections due to violence and other forms of limited control over their sexuality.  

Recently (Feb. 4) the Ministers of Gender Equality adopted the Ministerial Declaration in which they agreed that gender equality cannot be achieved without guaranteeing women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights.  

Therefore, I would like to urge you on behalf of ASTRA to address Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the revised version of the report, so that such an important aspect of European women’s life cannot be ignored.

Sincerely,

Wanda Nowicka
ASTRA - Central and Eastern European Women's Network
 for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

cc. Anne Van Lancker, MEP, the European Parliament Working Group on Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS and Development Cooperation