State Secretary for Gender Equality, Equal Opportunities and Diversity Marie-Colline Leroy takes up chairmanship of Women's Rights Interministerial Conference

Wednesday 20 Sept 2023 State Secretary for Gender Equality, Equal Opportunities and Diversity Marie-Colline Leroy takes over the chairmanship of the Interministerial Conference (IMC) Women's Rights from Flemish Minister Bart Somers. The recommendations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), also known as the UN Convention on Women, will guide her chairmanship. State Secretary Marie-Colline Leroy: "The ambition of this IMC Women's Rights is to do everything possible to make effective the rights of women guaranteed by numerous national and international laws. From formal equality between women and men to real equality, that is the task that awaits us. Implementing the CEDAW recommendations will help the governments in our country along the way."

Despite all the progress in gender equality, we have to note that formally identical rights for women and men have failed to eliminate all de facto discrimination against women. Women remain disadvantaged in many areas. They perform most of the unpaid work. They still earn significantly less than men for equivalent work. They are the main victims of gender-based violence. They are still underrepresented in positions of responsibility, etc.

Belgium and its member states are held accountable by the recommendations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The Convention bases this on the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is also known as the UN Convention on Women. On 31 October 2022, the committee sent our country a 20-page document full of recommendations to move towards true equality.

Leroy: "In that list are a lot of measures that can help our country move From formal equality between women and men to real equality. We have up to four years to do this. At the IMC Women's Rights, these recommendations will be discussed. It will then be up to the responsible governments to take them up and turn them into effective legislation so that all women living in Belgium, surely half the population, finally get real equality of rights."

The Vivaldi government has already taken some important steps towards more real rights for women. In the spring, the law on preventing, better protecting and combating feminicide, gender-based killing and the violence that precedes it was approved, the legislative arsenal against discrimination was strengthened, a number of measures within the anti-racism plan specifically help women move forward, as part of the pension reform, more equal periods are being taken into account for calculating pensions, and birth leave for fathers and co-mothers was gradually increased from 10 to 20 days and extended to self-employed workers.

But even within the Vivaldi government there is still a lot of work to be done to move towards true equality between women and men. Leroy: "Women supposedly have equal access to the labour market but in the facts we see that the executive committees of Bel 20 companies only have 16% women. Therefore, I am working on a proposal to temporarily introduce quotas in the executive committees of listed companies, starting with the Bel 20 companies. I am also asking for additional funding for four additional care centres after sexual violence, 1 per prosecutor's office, so that all victims can be taken care of and helped quickly and efficiently."

Another key focus for the secretary of state is to get civil society more involved so that their expertise and close ties with women can be more valorised.