Court for Human Rights have done significant work in the area of realising the rights of women
from minorities. I am reminded of the
groundbreaking precedents for the reproductive rights of
minority women established through the court. The conclusions of the European Commission on
Racism and intolerance and reports of the Advisory Committee for the Council of Europe
Framework Convention on National Minorities and their respective reporting processes have been
particularly useful also
The research undertaken by the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union, and published
just recently under the EU MIDIS project, indicates that people from minority ethnic groups are five
times more likely to experience multiple discrimination than people in the majority population, and
that gender and age have very particular impacts on discrimination. This is information that we
cannot ignore. The Lisbon Treaty of the European Union also pronounces very explicitly on
protection of minorities, but it doesn’t create the legal competence to make policies. However are a
number of issues regarding migrant women, regarding the need for policies on integration that
clearly include women from minorities,
regarding the independent rights of women migrants or
those seeking asylum, (these in effect and call for independent status of women in migration and
asylum processes), continue to be lobbied for by European NGOs they are important considerations
for to the rights of minority women. Finally in the European Union framework there are proposals