<TITLE: Suffrage, Gender and Citizenship: European Citizenship from Gender Perspective
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: social sciences
DISCIPLINE: political history
EVENT TYPE: presentation
FILE ID: CPRE09A
NOTES: continuation of and continued in CDIS090, session also includes presentations CPRE09B-D

RECORDING DURATION: 20 min 55 sec

RECORDING DATE: 16.10.2006

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: circa 45

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 4

S2: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Croatian; ACADEMIC ROLE: research student; GENDER: female; AGE: 24-30

S3: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Finnish; ACADEMIC ROLE: other; GENDER: female; AGE: 51-over

S4: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Polish; ACADEMIC ROLE: research student; GENDER: female; AGE: 24-30

NS7: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: English (Australia); ACADEMIC ROLE: senior staff; GENDER: female; AGE: 51-over

SS: several simultaneous speakers>


<S2> okay my name is <NAME S2> er it's difficult to pronounce i'm coming from croatia i'm teaching in the faculty of law university of zagreb erm i'm teaching european union law and i also teach at the centre for women's studies in zagreb erm european union law chair in zagreb is erm a recently established chair and it took us erm a couple of years to establish such an important er place for education young lawyers in the field of the european union law which is very important er for croatia er this moment er because we are erm in the process of negot- negotiations with european union erm the centre for er women's studies erm unfortunately is not er the programme of the centre for women's studies in zagreb in zagreb is not er recognised as by the university and er the centre is also er not considered as an is- institute so it it is acting actually as an NGO erm er my topic is european citizens- citizenship from gender perspective since er i am european union lawyer and i'm er my research is er focusing on er gender equality er citizenship rights and er issues of multiple forms of discrimination i always er take er two perspectives er into consideration when i'm er dealing with the issues of er er equality and discrimination so it is er europea- european and gender perspective erm <P:05> okay the concept of er the european citizenship is a relatively new construction er the maastricht treaty so this is the founding treaty of the european union from the 1993 er defined the concept of the european citizenship and the purpose of that concept was to create er people's o- er people's europe erm when we speak about the concept of european citizenship we need to stress er of course fro- er a positive impact from one side and the negative er impact or failure of that concept from the other side the positive impact of the european citizenship is of course at the first place stre- streg- strengthening of er political rights er in general but unfortunately not really er so erm important and er er strong in terms of protecting political rights of women in europe er if you speak about the negative er mhm impact of the european citizenship er once again i need to stress that the issue of equality between men and women er has not been taken into consideration during the negotiation and creating of a new er new rules erm within the founding treaties of the european union such as <COUGH> as i mentioned before the maastricht treaty and er after the 1997 the treaty of amsterdam erm <P:06> er when we talk about er european citizenship so the le- legitant legiting question would be is citizenship gendered er in many ways the 20th century was the century of women as it er it it is erm er written by one of the most famous er feminist legal scholar catherine (jenkins) er through legal reform at national livel the level er the century witnessed the growing inclusion of women within public life er exemplified by the development in most states of universal suffrage globalisation has impact upon gender re- relations in complex and contradictory ways the centralisation of power within the sovereign state that has been er fragmented by globalisation was not er predicated upon nor necessarily supportive of equality between women and men erm er one issue i need to also stress er er it is er important to er take into consideration is differences er when we talk about the concept of citizenship in general differences in understanding of this concept between western and eastern europe so we have two perspectives er western and eastern european perspectives er differences are of course mhm at the first place er historical er i don't want to go into t- details and i'm not historian so it could be ta- it could take erm much more time but er in short er i i just need to stress that erm croatia is one of the countries er from the former yugoslavia i- it's actually a new country er became independent in 1991 and when we talk about the issue of citizenship nationality er the issue of ethnic minorities er gender er we are sharing the similar er history the similar er situation as other er eastern european countries such er romania bulgaria mhm czech republic poland et cetera so i must stress that citizenship approach er opens a gender-sensitive perspective on the transition process in eastern and central europe on the basis of citizenship rights social citizenship provisions would be encompassing gender-sensitive they would be grounded in a universal notion of citizenship rather than in er ascribed roles and different functions of women and men a perspective which is no longer considered to be legitimate in the light of social justice and gender equity today erm once again erm i must stress that er the recognition of european citizenship is not really er erm recognised at the european level as it should be so i i consider this as a failure of the maastricht treaty of both m- the maastricht treaty and the treaty of amsterdam and now we are waiting for <COUGH> the constitution of europe so the new treaty to maybe improve the situation but according to the current text of the constitution er i must say that er it it it will it wou- er it won't bring er much more better situation for gender equality erm er however er in its current form it offers very limited prerogatives nevertheless the possible development of a concept of equality between the sexes and general parity has the potential to act as a powerful tool for democratic change and to benefit women and european society in general so erm as a lawyer i must er emphasise s- some basic er problems and questions er first of all there is a problem of legal definitions when we take into consideration the concept of european citizenship the concept of discrimination the concept of er sex or gender equality but at the european union level it's called sex equality er then of course we have problem with definitions of discrimination and again erm gender mainstreaming gender equality the problems with translation within different countries of the european union erm another problem is er once we created legal norms er protecting human rights and of course er women rights er we have problem with interpretation of er the legal norms and er finally the problem of er harmonisation of domestic law with the un- with er the european union law so there are a lot of gaps in the process of er harmonisation and of course it's always problematic the er raising awareness erm mhm er i had a lot of opportunities to teach and to educate young women but i'm always er dealing with the same problem er always the same people are coming @@ to the lecture and erm er basically er the huge percentage unfortunately of women are not interested in the topic of gender equality so er sometimes i'm er i don't know i'm angry er and i'm i have a feeling that i'm wasting my time because er what is the purpose er of er speaking about the same things to the same people like almost four or five years so erm well anyway erm when i mentioned the issue of er legal definitions and the problem of er discrimina- discrimination as such for example why is so mhm why it's so problematic er at the european union er level er we have different er definitions of discrimination and different countries for example in finland we have different definitions of discrimination and in croatia we have only one definition of discrimination and of course at the european union leven level there are different er erm er de- er definitions of equality so different sorts of equality and as a consequence we are er we can erm erm we can define different sorts of discrimination such as er direct indirect discrimination or institutionalised discrimination positive discrimination or affirmative action er the concept of discrimination has been given several meanings and definitions this is related to the variation on in conceptions of equality and justice in general er there is not only as i said one legal definition of discrimination er the concept has been defined in international documents in several different ways and national definitions also vary erm . <USING POWERPOINT> it's a bit slow @@ erm so why is er er understanding of different fors er different forms of discrimination so important it is important for a visibility of er different sorts of so-called hidden discrimination such as multiple discrimination which is about unjustified distinctions and adverse treatment on forbidden grounds erm we can take for example in this case the example of trafficking in the case of trafficking of women it violates the right to life the right to dignity and security the right to just and favoura- er favourable conditions of work and the right to help moreover the basic citizenship rights of women women are denied for example they are deprived of the liberty they are transported into different countries without documents includig pa- including passports so this is really one erm er a very important case of er de- er denying basic women er human rights and of course women rights erm since er everyone today erm mentioned erm er some er examples and case studies of er the countries all over the world er i would like to focus a little bit more on croatia i don't know how many of you are familiar with the situation in croatia probably not that much erm as i er said at the beginning we are in the process of negotiation with the european union er because we are the candidate we got the status of the candidate country for the membership and er in that process er since er 2001 er when we signed up the stabilisation and association agreement we started the procedure of harmonisation of domestic laws with the european union laws but unfortunately a large amount of laws are still not in accordance with the european union law and now we are dealing with many problems er in practice erm in other words er even er norms we adopted w- and which are in accordance with the european union standards er are not really erm erm obeyed er from the er lawyers and er er they are not really erm er i i don't know how to say that erm <NS7> [mhm mhm] </NS7> [we don't] really respect the the rules and erm er the maj- er the basic problem is that our lawyers and especially judges are not really educated in the field of er er european union law and er unfortunately most of them er don't speak english they don't understand english and er when you talk about the european union law we must er take into consideration that we need to follow the practice of the european court of justice and the issue [of pres-] </S2>
<S3> [french] <S2> sorry </S2> in french </S3>
<S4> how about french do they speak french </S4>
<S2> ah do they speak french </S2>
<NS7> mhm </NS7>
<S3> if croatians er speak french that's better for the european [court becau-] </S3>
<S2> [but they don't] speak french <S3> okay </S3> <SS> [@@] </SS> [@@] er well most of croatians speak let's say german well it depends [which part of croatia northern part] </S2>
<S3> [mhm that's also a european union language] </S3>
<NS7> mhm-hm </NS7>
<S2> yeah northern part of croatia german and er southern part italian so @@ erm so these are er basic problems erm er i also wanted to stress that er since er 2003 we adopted a set of new legislation er which is er er in the field of gender equality and the most er important piece of er legislation is the gender equality act which is almost like the constitutional law but it's not constitutional law but i don't want to talk er about that because it's too er abstract for those who are not lawyers but er in the er in that er big er in that er little erm er problem constitutional or not er er it's really er the real cause of er er negative impacts of harmonisation such as non- er implementation of er provisions of gender equality act so we have the definitions of discrimination we know what is er according to the law what is direct what is indirect discrimination we have a definition of positive er discrimination er we have lot of er rules about education erm then about er political parties er er then er about the position of women in media but in practice erm no-one really er respect the rules erm <COUGH> speaking about erm er constitutional provisions of course we are all equal before the law and that's the only rule we really have and since i don't know 1991 when we had the first contitu- the first constitution but erm our courts er don't really recognise what discrimination really is so er it's basically the same thing the direct indirect discrimination @positive@ action so er our judges th- er don't er make any difference erm er it's really a sad story but er we are trying to do our best in terms of education but w- we will see what will happen and of course one of the problem is that we brought that act under the pressure of the european u- union so we made one mis- mistake at the beginning er er the gender equality act is something like translation of er the norms from the european directives so basic er the norms were literally were literally er adopted so only translated without any understanding and er erm of course we have erm we got the governmental office for ge- for gender equality then ombudsperson for gender equality but er they don't really er know how to use er the gender equality act how to use the norms how to make evaluation how to make er monitoring erm so national machineries are really really weak in croatia however even the situation according to my opinion is really bad in other eastern european countries the situation is even worse er for example a month ago i went to istanbul so i was er listening the experiences of er turkish women and erm i can see that in f- @from that@ perspective croatia is erm staying much better and er it's much more closer to the union in terms of protecting er women rights however er we still have a lot of problems er within the er our justice system and er legislation because there is a very strong political influence on the lea- er leading political party and they are not really keen to erm make any improvement in terms of er protection of women rights erm i don't see at the moment er any bright future in the next two or three years for croatia or other eastern european countries er because the the process of transition er left some unresolved problems and er people are still dealing with the past and not going to the future erm another problem that er young people are frustrated and they are not really erm encouraged enough to learn more about the whole process and er i think that er there is a even strong resistance er by young women to learn more and er to work on the on the issues on gender equality and even within the faculty of law we don't have a course to offer such as sex equality law which is i think something basic and something very very important for young lawyers erm er programmes and er policies we offer are also not really erm considered from the er gover- government and they're not really keen to accept our opinion like independent experts from the university and erm maybe erm in two or three years me ca- we can make some improvement but again unfortunately under the pressure of the european union not because we would like to do that and i think that erm i can stop here [@@] </S2>
<SS> [@@] </SS>
<SU-3> very optimistic </SU-3>
<S2> because i don't want to be erm to sound too @pessimistic@ <SS> [@@] </SS> [@@] thank you </S2>
<APPLAUSE>
