Gender

While equality is a core component of fundamental rights protection, gender inequalities persist in today's society, and are often compounded by other forms of discrimination, preventing women from enjoying their full rights.

One of the most serious violations of gender equality is violence against women, which undermines several other core fundamental rights, such as dignity and access to justice. Violence against women is a pressing problem throughout the EU, and little comparable data has been available to date. In order to address this gap, FRA is carrying out an EU-wide survey on violence against women. This is the first survey of its kind to randomly sample and interview more than 40,000 women across the 27 EU Member States and Croatia. It will thus provide policy makers with the comparable data they need to formulate informed, targeted policies that combat such violence.

FRA also works closely with the European Institute for Gender Equality, which was founded in 2006 to contribute to and strengthen the promotion of gender equality, and to raise awareness of gender equality issues by providing technical assistance to the Community institutions.

At the EU level, sex discrimination in the field of employment was prohibited for the first time in 1976. In 2004, the Gender Goods and Services Directive expanded the scope of sex discrimination to the area of goods and services, which guarantees equal treatment in relation to social security (but not to the broader welfare system).

Equality between men and women is a fundamental principle that is enshrined in the EU’s  Charter of Fundamental Rights. Sex discrimination refers to unequal treatment based on gender difference.

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Status: 
Ongoing

FRA survey on gender-based violence against women

In 2011-2012, the European Union Agency of Fundamental Rights (FRA) is carrying out the first EU-wide survey on women's well-being and safety in Europe - involving interviews with 40,000 women.
Status: 
Findings available

Multiple discrimination in healthcare

In 2010 and 2011, the Fundamental Rights Agency will undertake for the first time in-depth research looking at forms of discrimination that have been relatively little studied so far: ‘multiple' and ‘intersectional' discrimination.

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March
2013

Inequalities and multiple discrimination in access to and quality of healthcare

Report
Certain people are seen as particularly vulnerable to unequal treatment, because they share a combination of characteristics that may trigger discrimination. A Roma woman sterilised without her informed consent, for example, has suffered discrimination not just because of her sex, as all women do not face this treatment, nor just because she is Roma, as Roma men may not face this treatment. The discriminatory treatment is based specifically on the intersection of her sex and ethnic origin.
November
2012

Making hate crime visible in the European Union: acknowledging victims' rights

Report
Discrimination and intolerance persist in the European Union (EU) despite the best efforts of Member States to root them out, FRA research shows. Verbal abuse, physical attacks and murders motivated by prejudice target EU society in all its diversity, from visible minorities to those with disabilities. This FRA report is designed to help the EU and its Member States to tackle these fundamental rights violations both by making them more visible and bringing perpetrators to account.