At the United Nations

As an active defender and promoter of women’s rights in international fora, France contributed to the adoption of Security Council resolutions on "Women, Peace and Security". These resolutions call upon States to provide increased protection for women during conflicts and to ensure increased participation by women in peace-making negotiations and decision-making processes. In October 2010, France adopted a national action plan for implementation of the "Women, Peace and Security" resolutions. France supports the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, responsible for combating conflict-related sexual violence and appointing Women’s Protection Advisers to be deployed as part of peacekeeping operations.

At France’s instigation, a Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice was established at the 15th Human Rights Council session in 2010 to supplement existing mechanisms.

In 2006, France together with the Netherlands presented a biannual resolution to the General Assembly of the United Nations on the intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women. By 2012, a number of areas of progress were noted, such as the inclusion of a reference to reproductive rights and the reintroduction of the theme of sexual and reproductive health, as well as reference to domestic violence as the most common form of violence against women.

In addition, France is closely involved in the activities of the Commission on the Status of Women, an ECOSOC functional commission dedicated to gender equality and the advancement of women.

France also supported the creation of UN Women, sharing fully in the agency’s priorities and developing a number of joint cooperation programmes. Its partnership with the agency was further strengthened by the signing of a framework cooperation agreement in May 2012.

European Union diplomacy

Within the European Union, and further to the "Guidelines on violence against women and girls and combating all forms of discrimination against them", adopted in 2008 under France’s Presidency of the EU, France supports the priority given by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs to the promotion of women’s rights in EU foreign relations.

France also played an active role in drawing up the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, was one of the first signatories to the convention (in May 2011) and is currently pursuing the ratification procedure.

Other initiatives

France adopted a "Gender and Development" strategy in 2007 and a three-year action plan for the empowerment of women in Africa in 2009. The philosophy underpinning France’s cooperation initiatives has two main thrusts:
respect for human rights and the deployment of political advocacy to enhance the effectiveness of aid,
support for specific actions to promote equality and the crosscutting integration of gender issues into every sector of activity.

Through its cooperation policy, France supports numerous initiatives to promote gender equality, including combating violence against women, combating maternal and infant mortality and promoting education for girls and the economic empowerment of women.

^{Updated on : 01.03.13}