Strasbourg, 13 November 2012                                                                CDLR(2012)14

                                                                                               Item A3 of the agenda

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

(CDLR)

GENDER EQUALITY RAPPORTEUR:

TERMS OF REFERENCE AND ROADMAP TO IMPLEMENTATION

For information

Secretariat Memorandum

prepared by the

Directorate of Democratic Governance, Culture and Diversity

Democracy, Institution-Building and Governance Department


This document is public. It will not be distributed at the meeting. Please bring this copy.

Ce document est public. Il ne sera pas distribué en réunion. Prière de vous munir de cet exemplaire.



Introduction

According to its terms of reference the CDLR is required, like all intergovernmental committees, to appoint a Gender Equality Rapporteur from amongst its members. At its 49th meeting (2-3 April 2012), the CDLR appointed Edwin Lefebre as gender equality rapporteur. It was further agreed that the CDLR would also seek to appoint a woman as co-rapporteur for gender equality. This appointment is to be discussed under item A4 of the agenda (see document CDLR(2012)15).

In this document, the Secretariat presents some additional views on gender issues with the aim of enabling the Committee to take a decision on what role the Rapporteur could perform and what the implementation of the Committee of Ministers declaration “Making gender equality a reality” might entail for the CDLR’s work programme.

Part One gives an overview (prepared by the Secretariat) of recent developments in discussing gender issues.

Part Two reproduces the terms of reference of the Gender Equality Rapporteurs.

Part Three attempts to highlight gender-related questions and concerns that might receive consideration by the CDLR in the implementation of its work programme. The comments made are examples of remarks that the rapporteur(s) might raise in relation to CDLR activities (using as a reference tool the Overview document) with a view to adding a specific gender focus to them.

If this presentation is found appropriate, the CDLR could agree to instruct the gender rapporteur(s) to examine the CDLR’s work programme and present at the next CDLR meeting their views on how best include a gender dimension in the implementation of CDLR’s activities.

Action required

CDLR members are invited to consider in particular Parts One and Three of this document and agree on the role of gender rapporteur(s) as described above.


PART ONE

Making gender equality a reality

Note prepared by the Secretariat using excerpts

from texts and articles (see bibliography below)

The purpose of this discussion paper is to provide an overview of some of the issues to be taken into consideration by the CDLR, and the gender rapporteur in particular, with regard to the gender dimension of our activities and to spark discussion and reflection within the Committee.

Gender sensitive

The Committee of Ministers declaration: Making gender equality a reality states that women and men may have differing needs and that policy should therefore be gender sensitive.

It alsorecognises that the past decades were often marked by neglect of a gender perspective in legislation and policy with gender equality being a partially or totally isolated issue, with few links with other policies and fields although it is both a goal in itself and a cross-cutting issue which should be at the core of practical decision making.

But how different are we, how important is this difference, and what exactly is the focus of a gender perspective in legislation and policy, particularly from a woman’s point of view?

In a different voice

In 1982, the seminal work of child psychologist Carol Gilligan[1] noted the disparity between women’s experience and the representation of human development contained in psychological literature. The usual interpretation of this phenomenon was that it indicated problems in women’s psychological development. Gilligan turned the analysis on its head by arguing that the failure of women to fit existing models of human growth suggested a limitation in the notion of the human condition.

Translating her research into the context of national legal systems has shown that just as traditional psychological theories have privileged a male perspective and marginalised women’s voices, so too law privileges a male view of the universe. Its hierarchical organisation, its adversarial format, and its aim of the abstract resolution of competing rights make the law an intensely patriarchal institution.


Liberalism, the political ideology based on the theories of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, is the ideology which underpins Council of Europe member States’ legal systems and policy-making. It is also fundamental to understanding the European Convention on Human Rights and other Council of Europe treaties. Liberalism describes individuals as separate from each other, free of the other; their ends, their life; their path and goals are necessarily their own; they are existentially free and this is the universal human condition. It is for this reason, that the rights in the ECHR are for the most part negative – freedom from executive intervention.

According to Gilligan, however, the story for women is very different. As primary caretakers of young children, they have a sense of existential connection to other human life which men do not.  That sense of connection in turn entails a way of learning, a path of moral development, an aesthetic sense, and a view of the world and of one’s place within it which sharply contrasts with men’s.

Hard-wired for empathy

An article appearing in “The Guardian”, 17 April 2003, by Simon Baron-Cohen, professor of Developmental Psychopathology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, states that there are big differences between the male and female brains. His theory is that the female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy, and that the male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems. He calls it the empathising-systemising (E-S) theory.

A key feature of this theory is that your sex cannot tell you which type of brain you have. Not all men have the male brain, and not all women have the female brain. The central claim of this new theory is only that on average, more males than females have a brain of type S, and more females than males have a brain of type E.

So are females better at empathising? This theory rings true at an anecdotal level. For example, we've always known that people choose different things to read in the newsagent on the railway platform or in the airport departure lounge. Women are more likely to go to the magazine rack featuring fashion, romance, beauty, intimacy, emotional problems and agony-aunts, counselling, relationship advice, and parenting. Men are more likely to go to a magazine rack featuring computers, cars, boats, photography, DIY, sport, hi-fi, action, guns, tools, and the outdoors.


And we all have anecdotal impressions about typical hobbies for men and women. Men are more likely to spend hours happily engaged in car or motorbike maintenance, light aircraft piloting, sailing, bird- or trainspotting, mathematics, tweaking their sound systems, computer games and programming. Women are more likely to spend hours happily engaged in coffee mornings or pot-luck suppers, advising friends on relationship problems, or caring for friends, neighbours, or pets.

When asked to judge when someone might have said something potentially hurtful, girls score higher from at least seven years old. Women are also more sensitive to facial expressions. They are better at decoding non-verbal communication, picking up subtle nuances from tone of voice or facial expression, or judging a person's character.

There is also a sex difference in aggression. Males tend to show far more "direct" aggression such as pushing, hitting and punching. Females tend to show more "indirect" (or "relational", covert) aggression. This includes gossip, exclusion, and bitchy remarks. It could be said that to punch someone in the face or to wound them physically requires an even lower level of empathy than a verbal snipe.

But the E-S theory goes beyond such anecdotal evidence to pull together the scientific evidence, and investigate the origins of these differences.

The evidence for a female advantage in empathising comes from many different directions. For example, studies show that when children play together with a little movie player that has only one eye-piece, boys tend to get more of their fair share of looking down the eye piece. They just shoulder the girls out of the way. Less empathy, more self-centred. Or if you leave out a bunch of those big plastic cars that kids can ride on, what you see is that more little boys play the "ramming" game. They deliberately drive the vehicle into another child. The little girls ride around more carefully, avoiding the other children more often. This suggests the girls are being more sensitive to others.

Baby girls, as young as 12 months old, respond more empathically to the distress of other people, showing greater concern through more sad looks, sympathetic vocalisations and comforting. This echoes what you find in adulthood: more women report frequently sharing the emotional distress of their friends. Women also spend more time comforting people.

Should a theory like this be a cause of concern? Some people may worry that this is suggesting one sex is better than the other, but a moment's reflection should allay this fear. The theory is saying that, on average, males and females differ in what they are drawn to and what they find easy, but that both sexes have their strengths and their weaknesses. Neither sex is superior overall. (full article:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/apr/17/research.highereducation).


Legislation and policy

The law and politics have not always served women well. For centuries, both systems were shaped and enforced exclusively by men, they denied women the attributes of citizenship and personhood, and subordinated them to the decisions of men.

Gradually, the most blatant forms of discrimination and disability were removed, so that women could be considered as persons, be guardians of their children, exercise the right to vote and enter professions.  It was anticipated that when the main barriers went down, both systems would deliver equal justice. But discrimination as an approach to equality was not sufficient: law and policy remained insensitive to many women’s concerns, and failed to protect them, for example, as victims of rape and domestic violence. It also failed to facilitate their lives, in the same way it facilitated men’s, for instance, it was slow to create employment structures that recognised women’s childbearing role, and it has never attributed an economic value to women’s work raising the very people on who our future economic, social and political well-being depends.

The “add women and stir” approach

The liberalist approach to equality has been to imagine that the disadvantages suffered by women can be compartmentalised and redressed by a simple requirement of equal treatment, i.e., simply by placing women in the same position as men in the public sphere, described by Charlotte Bunch [2] as the “add women and stir” approach.  Thus prohibitions on sex discrimination promise equality to women who attempt to conform to a male model and offer little to those who do not. Such prohibitions have been used for attempting to transform a world in which the distribution of goods is structured along gender lines.  “It assumes a world of autonomous individuals starting a race or making free choices [which] has no cutting edge against the fact that men and women are simply running different races” (Nicola Lacey, “Legislation”, note 43 at 420). 

For instance, at the international level, the comparatively broad definition contained in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which covers both equality of opportunity and equality of outcome is based on this limited approach: Firstly, the discrimination it prohibits is confined to accepted human rights and fundamental freedoms, which themselves have been structured along gender lines: eg Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to life – was aimed at protecting life in the public sphere (traditionally a man’s domain) against abuses of power by the executive; it has only very recently been accepted as extending into the private sphere (traditionally a woman’s domain) to cover situations of domestic violence by husbands, partners, other members of the family, etc[3]. Further, CEDAW’s sanction of affirmative action programmes in Article 4[4] assumes that such affirmative measures will be temporary techniques to allow women eventually to perform exactly like men.

Identifying the invisible

Catherine MacKinnon, Special Gender Adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, describes an alternative approach to equality, for which the central question always is “whether the policy or practice in question integrally contributes to the maintenance of an underclass or a deprived position because of gender status.  The law should support freedom from systematic subordination because of sex, rather than freedom to be treated without regard to sex”. Mackinnon’s approach is not always easily applied because many of the relationships of subordination sanctioned by the law are so deeply engrained that they appear quite natural. It involves looking “for that which we have been trained not to see… [identifying] the invisible.”

Using MacKinnon’s analysis, other feminist lawyers have described discrimination in institutions, such as the workplace, where practices are more compatible with culturally defined male life patterns than female ones.  Christine Littleton, for example, has proposed defining the goal of equality as “acceptance” so that institutions could be required to react to gender differences by restrucuturing to fit women and their life patterns.

Local level

What does all this mean for the local level and the work of the CDLR? Much of our work may seem gender neutral on the face of it: pecuniary transfers from central to local government; structures for encouraging citizen participation; respect for the principles of good governance (the Strategy). But nothing in this world is gender neutral, since it will always be of concern to the two principal, and only, human beings.

Taking the 12 principles of the Strategy as an example: there is no principle of good governance on gender sensitivity, and yet local government structures are likely to be based on a more male view of the world, but seen as neutral, as much as any other worldly structure.

Do local councils make an effort to ensure meetings are at times when both women and men can attend? Are there child-care facilities? For a woman dependent on her husband for money, who refuses to pay for babysitting, or pay for bus fares, are there hardship funds which would enable them to participate nonetheless?

When setting up a Euroregional Cooperation Grouping, are the purposes they intend to deal with supportive of men, supportive of women, or fairly supportive of both? Are women’s issues allocated lesser importance, or are they given equal importance and priority when needs be?

Does the policy look at empathetic approaches, or approaches which focus only on justice and equity: ie giving each her/his due?

We should undoubtedly have a rebuttable presumption that the gender issue is relevant to all our activities, with the evidential burden, as with all presumptions, falling on the shoulders of the person/group challenging it.

Bibliography

Human Rights of Women, Rebecca J Cook, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994

The boundaries of International law, Hilary Charlesworth and Christine Chinkin, Manchester University Press, 2000

Guardian Article, “They can’t help it”, Simon Baron-Cohen, 17 April 2003

Jurisprudence and Gender, Robin West, University of Chicago Law Review 1, 1988


PART TWO

Council of Europe Transversal Programme

on Gender Equality

Gender equality rapporteurs and their role

Information note prepared by the Gender Equality team,

Gender Equality and Human Dignity Department, DGI

----------------

Introduction – the transversal programme

1.                 The Transversal Programme on Gender Equality has been launched by the Secretary General to improve the visibility and  impact of the Council of Europe’s work on gender equality in the member states ; to move from legal equality to real equality as member states were called upon to do by the Committee of Ministers in its Declaration, « Making Gender Equality a Reality »[5].

2.                 The programme has several objectives, including the mainstreaming of gender equality at the level of policy and practice in the member states and within the Council of Europe. In this context, the programme will seek to mobilise all Council of Europe bodies (including the intergovernmental structures) and its external partners.

3.                 To this end, the programme is composed of several inter-dependent elements, namely :

-     A Gender Equality Commission, composed of 16 members appointed by member states[6]

-     A network of national focal points in each member State,

-     Gender equality rapporteurs appointed within the membership of the steering committees and other intergovernmental structures of the Council of Europe,

-     The Committee of Ministers Thematic Co-ordinator on Equality and Trafficking,

-     An Inter Secretariat gender equality mainstreaming team/network.

Since the beginning of 2012, steps have been taken to progressively put in place these various elements.  The process is still on-going. The Gender equality team within the Gender Equality and Human Dignity Department of DGI provides the secretariat for the programme.

Contributing to gender equality by integrating a gender perspective into a committee’s activities

4.                 Most, if not all, Council of Europe committees can contribute to gender equality in member states by ensuring that their activities integrate a gender perspective.  This does not imply additional tasks or a requirement to embark on new additional activities. It does, however, imply a change of approach. Essentially, it requires committees to consider proposals for new activities from a gender perspective before finalising them and to adapt or formulate activities as a result of such an analysis ;  i.e. by taking account of the likely impact of a proposed activity on women and men.

5.                 Integrating a gender perspective into a committee’s activities is a practical follow-up to the Madrid Declaration.[7] A few committees are already explicitly required to integrate a gender perspective into their activities. Appointing a gender equality rapporteur will facilitate this objective.

6.                 The majority of intergovernmental structures are required in their current terms of reference to appoint a gender equality rapporteur from amongst their members. Of course, other committees and structures are free to appoint a gender equality rapporteur should they so wish and they are encouraged to do so. In principal,  convention committees should also be able to appoint a gender equality rapporteur within the framework of their internal rules.


Role of the gender equality rapporteur

7.                 The person appointed as a gender equality rapporteur will not be required to make reports. Although s/he will be invited, along with the committee secretary, to liaise with the Gender Equality Commission (see below) and will be in contact with gender equality rapporteurs from other committees.

8.                 Essentially, the gender equality rapporteur should watch over the programming process of his or her committee (i.e. the process of identifying priorities, preparing activity proposals, setting-up and implementing the activities, and evaluating the results) in order to ensure that a gender perspective is properly integrated. The person appointed as the committee’s gender equality rapporteur should not be expected to do this alone. It should be the responsibility of the committee as a whole. In this sense, the appointment of a gender equality rapporteur is a minimum, to ensure that there is a least one member taking responsibility ; but ideally this should be shared by all the members.

9.                 It is recognised that committees have increasingly heavy agendas and, in some cases, meet less frequently than in the past. Consequently, the bureaux have an increasingly important role in identifying activities and preparing, reviewing and evaluating their implementation. For this reason, it is recommended that the gender equality rapporteur be appointed from amongst the members of the bureau ; although this is not essential, provided s/he is involved in the Bureau’s discussions on the programme of activities.

10.             Finally, it should be noted that this is a new initiative and necessarily the precise tasks of the gender equality rapporteur will be further refined with time and in the light of experience.

Support to gender equality rapporteurs

11.             A training programme has been put in place to ensure that all committee secretaries have the necessary knowledge and skills to assist the gender equality rapporteur and the committee as a whole in integrating a gender perspective into their programme of activities. An information session for gender equality rapporteurs will also be organised in Strasbourg during the second half of 2012 in order to familiarise them with their role and the basic notions of gender mainstreaming.


12.             Also, with a view to providing support to the committees in integrating a gender perspective, the Gender Equality Commission is required to maintain close links with the other elements of the transversal programme and, in particular, engage in regular exchanges of views with the gender equality rapporteurs. These exchanges will most likely be organised on either a collective or thematic basis. This will involve travelling to a meeting, at least in the early stages. With time, hopefully it will be possible to introduce video or telephone conferencing. In any event, members of the Gender Equality Commission will attend the information session for gender equality rapporteurs mentioned above.

13.             The Gender Equality team of the Secretariat in DGI is available to provide advice and information to committees and their gender equality rapporteurs if required. Moreover, the team welcomes feedback on the experience of  appointing the rapporteurs and their functioning in order that this initiative can be improved and developed.


PART THREE

CDLR Work programme

Text Box: Below is the CDLR Work programme, with suggestions for including the gender dimension, highlighted in grey.

Checklist:
1. Does the item discriminate against / have a negative impact on one particular gender?
2. Is the item truly neutral, presenting issues of concern for both sexes, irrespective of whether one sex thinks the issue in question is trivial?
3. Does it present both the empathetic and system-building points of view?
4. Have we identified the invisible, the angles we have been trained not to see?

NB. The remarks that follow are included in an early version of document CDLR(2012)19. They are meant as guidance only for the Gender Equality Rapporteur.


Terms of Reference

(adopted by the Committee of Ministers at the 1127th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies, 22-24 November 2011)

Under the authority of the Committee of Ministers, the CDLR will oversee the Council of Europe’s intergovernmental work in the field of democratic local and regional governance and advise the Committee of Ministers on all questions within its area of competence. Taking due account of relevant transversal perspectives, the overall aim is to provide guidance and technical expertise relating to the policies and activities of governments in member States, and to act as a technical forum to facilitate the development of such policies and activities both for individual member states and for collective action by governments within the Council of Europe.

Modalities

The Bureau receives requests from CM to provide comments on texts adopted by the PACE and Congress. The Secretariat sends out an electronic request for written contributions from CDLR members within a provided time period. Based on contributions received, the Bureau:


a) prepares a draft opinion, issues to all delegations for approval by written procedure (article 13 b., Appendix I to CM Resolution(2011)24),

The opinion highlights as appropriate the gender dimension in discussing the issues addressed by the PACE and Congress, having regard to the need to provide the CM with an informed opinion that does not overlook gender.

or

b) refers the draft opinion to the next plenary meeting of the CDLR for discussions and possible adoption, if the subject matters are of particularly high relevance.

Text Box: The Bureau ensures that the CDLR during its discussion addresses the gender dimension.

Modalities

Any delegation to the CDLR can propose to draw the attention of the CM to an issue which they consider relevant. The reasoned suggestion is made in writing, and discussed at the earliest meeting of the CDLR. The CDLR should agree on the pertinence and importance of the subject matter, for the issue to be referred to the CM. This could happen in relation to a general debate on a topical issue (see hereunder, terms of reference i.)

Text Box: The CDLR to check that the issue is sensitive to gender issues, and presents both genders’ views and concerns.

Terms of Reference

With this purpose, the CDLR is instructed to:

i.          Exchange information, views and good practices among its members, observers and participants on intergovernmental issues concerning local and regional democracy and cross-border cooperation, as much as possible via electronic means

Modalities

Themes for topical exchanges could be identified at each meeting for discussion at the forthcoming meeting. Outside the plenary meetings, members can make proposals, having regard to recent developments. The Bureau decides.

Once the topic is identified, members are invited to prepare for oral presentations and to provide, if possible, written contributions in advance (this can take the form of answering short questionnaires).

The Bureau may invite selected members and guest speakers to make specific presentations, to be followed by discussions.

If appropriate, a summary of information provided and/or comments made is appended to the abridged meeting report or distributed separately to all delegations. If the CDLR so feels, proposals can be submitted to the Committee of Ministers (link to General terms of reference, above)

Text Box: The gender issues (both negative and positive) are among the topics to be identified and highlighted. The Gender rapporteur or Secretariat is to point out when ‘neutrality’ wanders into the path of gender bias. The main points made in relation to gender to be included in any resumé drawn up of the discussions.


Modalities

CDLR can decide at any time that an issue deserves to be discussed or information exchanged via electronic means. Any delegation can submit a request to that effect. The CDLR or the Bureau, between meetings, decide.

If a member wishes to receive information on other members’ legislation or practice on a given topic (Rapid Response Service), it submits a request to the Secretariat, specifying the topic(s) and the deadline for replies. If need be, the Secretariat and the member discuss the exact wording of the question.

The Secretariat issues the request to all members. Replies are sent directly to the requesting state.

If the CDLR so decides, having regard to the topicality of the issue proposed for the exchange, replies should be disseminated to all members.

The exchanges could take the form of pre-established questionnaires, which the respondent countries could fill in. Alternatively the procedure can be open regarding the content and presentation style.

The CDLR is also to determine if electronic exchanges serve only as means of dissemination of information or the subjects on which such exchanges are organised can later be debated at CDLR meetings.

Text Box: The gender issues (both negative and positive) are among the topics to be identified and highlighted. The Gender rapporteur or Secretariat to point out when ‘neutrality’ wanders into the path of gender bias during exchanges, or by vetting questionnaires. A gender dimension to be included in questionnaires. A section on gender to be included in any resumé drawn up of the discussions.


a.       Report on the implementation of the Additional Protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government on the right to participate in the affairs of a local authority

Modalities

At its 49th meeting the  CDLR agreed that the Secretariat circulate a short questionnaire to all delegations for possible annswers by June 2012.

Text Box: If appropriate and feasible, questions and assessment of replies to take account of the gender dimension and particular difficulties of women in public participation (which is one of the issues addressed by the Committee of Ministers declaration on Making equality a reality).

b.       Report on low democratic participation, follow-up of the proposal from Rapporteur Mr Lefebre for CDLR to organise a workshop on low participation in early 2012

Modalities

At the 49th meeting, the CDLR agreed that a workshop on reasons for low democratic participation and experimented measures aimed at overcoming it would be organised in early 2013 by Belgium.

Text Box: A gender dimension to be included in the workshop – this could focus notably on the participation rates of men to women, and measures specifically taken by member States to encourage the group with the lower participation rate to participate.


c.       Structure and Operation reports

Modalities

At its 49th meeting, the CDLR agreed that Structure and Operation reports remain an important tool for disseminating updated information about local government in member states. The Secretariat was tasked with preparing a revised “table of contents” with easy-to-answer questions for CDLR’s approval by written procedure (31 August 2012). At least three states agree to update their report by the end of 2012 following the simplified layout.

Reports are put on line in the first quarter of 2013.

Text Box: A section to be included on the gender dimension. It should focus on the gender composition of councils, their deliberative and executive bodies, becoming mayor; speaking time of women in council meetings; the types of gender sensitive topics being treated by councils, how councils are encouraged to deal with issues of concern to both genders, council expenditure on issues of concern to women, as opposed to expenditure on issues mainly of concern to men, availability of creches and childcare to help women participate.

d.       Report on structures for Transfrontier co-operation

Modalities

At the 49th meeting the CDLR decided to update the Report on the Current State of the Administrative and Legal Framework of Transfrontier Co-operation in Europe that was last updated in 2006. The deadline for contributions by member states was set at 31 October  2012. The report will be put online by the end of this year.


         

Modalities

The CDLR agreed (49th meeting) that  a consultant should prepare the draft manual. Delegations would be invited to make suggestions  as to which body or institution in their respective countries, could perform such task.

The Manual could be drafted using as the starting point the information on obstacles to TFC collected in 2011 prior to the Kyiv conference. The draft will be disseminated to all delegations for comments prior to its adoption by the CDLR.

Text Box: To include a gender dimension in the manual: it should highlight the possible obstacles in this regard, the problem of ‘neutrality’ as described above, and suggest solutions and structures for avoiding such ‘neutrality’, discuss possible affirmative measures for overcoming any current gender bias.

Modalities

The CDLR should at this or a subsequent meeting discuss and identify the main points around which this report should be constructed. The report could take into account the results of the workshop on low participation in public life (see above), if held in 2012. The Secretariat is instructed to prepare a proposal for consideration at the next meeting of the CDLR.

Text Box: To include a section on initiatives to be taken to strengthen good governance etc. with regard to the gender dimension, to look at current initiatives, and analyse their ‘neutrality’, and supplement them where needs be.


Terms of Reference

(ii)       Respond to requests from governments for information on specific issues relating to states’ current policies and activities in the field of democratic local and regional governance (“the rapid response service for governments”)

Modalities

The CDLR confirmed the following modalities (approved in 2008 and followed since) as regards the organisation of workshops. The state which wishes to host the workshop should inform the Secretariat of its intention and the proposed subject-matter. It should be the role of the Secretariat to inform CDLR members of the upcoming event and to elaborate, in close cooperation with the host state, the programme of the workshop, lists of key speakers and discussion topics. The Secretariat should also assist the host state in making arrangements, ensure the link to the Council of Europe acquis and take care of the reporting and dissemination of results.

Invitations for participation are issued to CDLR members by the host state. Participants from member states should, in principle, pay for themselves. The organisation of the workshops should not entail any additional expenses for the CoE (besides the travel and subsistence fees of Secretariat members participating in the workshop).

The following themes, which are particularly pertinent and closely related to CoE acquis in the field, are put forward by the Secretariat for the consideration of CDLR members wishing to host workshops in the future:

a.    Promoting the Additional protocol to ECLSG;

b.    Promoting Protocol 3 to Madrid Outline Convention;

c.    Analytical tool of local authorities’ competences and the degree of autonomy of first-tier local authorities (Marcou tool);

d.    Good practices on the implementation of the Strategy in pilot countries;

e.    Funding of new competences for local authorities;

f.     Transfrontier cooperation

g.    The impact of EU decisions and policies on local government

h.    Citizen participation

i.      The impact of economic crisis on local government.

Text Box: Where they exist, to examine the non-discrimination provision and its implementation in member States, but to highlight the fact that the gender question should now go far beyond non-discrimination, to include accepting issues of specific concern to women.

Modalities

The “Rapid Reply Service” is a tool which has been used successfully by the Committee in the past and it aims at supplying the requesting country with specific comparative information at a short notice, whilst not constituting a major workload for the respondent countries.

The country which has a specific request for information should inform the Secretariat. The latter, in close cooperation with the requesting state, shall redraft the request in a clear and concise manner before forwarding it to all CDLR delegations for a response. The replying states should send their answers directly to the requesting state, by preferably copying the answer message to the Secretariat.

Text Box: In providing an assessment of the use made of RRS by member states, the Secretariat could specify how often do the questions asked address gender issues, if at all, and whether the issues addressed themselves are gender sensitive.

Modalities

Professor Yves Lejeune (Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium) is working on the draft for the Appendix to Protocol No 3 to the Madrid Outline Convention, following the instructions given to him by the (former) LR-IC committee.

The CDLR agreed to set up an open-ended working party of the countries most interested to assist the consultant in the process of drafting the Appendix. A draft could be prepared for consideration and possible adoption by the CDLR in Spring 2013.

Text Box: Care is taken that norms be gender sensitive and women and men be fairly represented in ECGs management bodies.


Terms of Reference

(iii)      Follow the work of other international actors in the field of local and regional democracy and cross-border co-operation, report to the Committee of Ministers on possible synergies and co-operation with these actors and develop such synergies on the basis of the decisions taken by the Committee of Ministers

Modalities

The CDLR is requested to identify the main actors on the international level whose work is similar, complementary and relevant for its activities so that possible synergies and cooperation between the CDLR and these organisations could be further developed. The CDLR should identify the ways in which it can follow the work of these actors (exchanges of information, crossed participation in meetings and events, internet) and the themes on which complementary action would be of added value both to the CDLR and its possible partners. CDLR should also identify possible areas of cooperation with other international organisations, which correspond to the overall strategic objectives of the Council of Europe and would be of added value for advancing the CoE agenda in general.

Once the list of potential partners has been established, to CDLR could hold a hearing to which representatives of these organisations would be invited to participate. The hearing would be the occasion to have more detailed exchanges and consultations about areas of common concern and activity directions on which collaboration could be established or intensified.

A report should be adopted by the CDLR at its 50th meeting andsubsequently presented to the CM (before end 2012), enabling the Ministers’ Deputies to decide on the list of international actors the work of which the CDLR deems necessary to follow and areas where further cooperation would be desirable. The report should also lay out the modalities for CDLR to develop cooperation in practice and to follow the work of its international counterparts.


Terms of Reference

(iv)      Participate effectively, through its designated representatives, in appropriate bodies within the Council of Europe, (e.g. the Stakeholders’ Platform on the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level and the Advisory board of the Centre of Expertise on Local Government Reform) and, subject to invitation and available financial means, other relevant and appropriate fora

Modalities

At its 49th meeting, CDLR confirmed the following representatives to the above mentioned institutions for an indefinite period of time:

- Mrs Greta Billing (Norway) is the CDLR’s representative in the Advisory Board of the Centre of Expertise on Local Government Reform;

- Mr Paul-Henri Philips (Belgium) and Mrs Greta Billing (Norway) are CDLR’s designated members to the Stakeholders’ Platform on the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at Local Level;

- Mr Paul-Henri Philips (Belgium) represents the CDLR in the Coordination platform of the European Local Democracy Week (ELDW).

The CDLR representatives systematically report to and update the Committee about recent developments (if any) concerning the functioning of bodies to which they are delegated. The CDLR also discusses and conveys to them the range of issues, which they should raise at future meetings of respective CoE bodies.

Text Box: The gender rapporteur could be included on the Stakeholder’s Platform to make sure gender issues are raised within the context of the Strategy and that decisions taken with regard to the Strategy are gender sensitive.

 


 

Modalities

Invitations are collected by the Secretariat and transmitted to the Chair. The Chair decides which members, if any, should be designated to represent the CDLR at specific events taking into consideration the particular subject-matters and varying competencies and roles of CDLR members.

It is recalled that, for instance, the Chair of the CDLR is regularly invited to attend the sessions of the Congress.

The Secretariat assists the designated member(s) in the preparation of their participation, notably by providing information briefings, speaking notes and any other relevant documentation.

Text Box: The Secretariat includes events on women’s issues among the events attended.

Terms of Reference

(v)       Ensure, as appropriate, the follow-up to any decisions taken by the Committee of Ministers subsequent to the 17th Session of the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for local and regional government (Kyiv, 3-4 November 2011), including in relation to the Chaves Review, in close co-operation with other appropriate Council of Europe bodies, and non-governmental organisations

The Kyiv Declaration adopted at the 17th Session of the CoE Conference of Ministers responsible for local and regional government suggested five priority areas for further follow-up action in the field of local and regional democracy. The report by the Secretary General on the Kyiv conference (CM(2011)178) is currently pending before the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and no decisions have yet been taken as to any follow-up actions.



[1] In a different voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, Carol Gilligan, 1982

[2] Founder of the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Douglass College, Rutgers University

[3] Opuz v Turkey, (Appl.no. 33401/02)

[4] Article 4 – Special measures

1. Adoption by States Parties of temporary special measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination as defined in the present Convention, but shall in no way entail as a consequence the maintenance of unequal or separate standards; these measures shall be discontinued when the objectives of equality of opportunity and treatment have been achieved.

2. Adoption by States Parties of special measures, including those measures contained in the present Convention, aimed at protecting maternity shall not be considered discriminatory.

[5]119th Session of the Committee of Ministers, Madrid 12 May 2009. The declaration was  circulated to committees in accordance with the decision of the Committee of Ministers taken at the 1057th meeting of their deputies.

[6] Open to participation by all member states in accordance with Resolution CM\Res(2011)24.

[7] The origins of the gender equality rapporteur lie in an initiative of the former CDMM to appoint such a person as part of its follow-up to the Madrid Declaration and  as a means of ensuring that it integrated a gender perspective into its work.