The Vice-president of the Congress and alternate Spokesperson on the South-Med Partnership, Michail ANGELOPOULOS (Greece, EPP), participated in the Conference on Migrant, Refugee and Asylum Seeking Women and Girls in the Euro-Mediterranean Region, organised by the European Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity of the Council of Europe (North-South Centre), on 3-4 October 2018, in Athens, Greece. The conference brought together representatives of governments, national parliaments, local and regional authorities and civil society experts from several European countries, as well as from countries of the southern Mediterranean.
The feminist approach to asylum procedures, the integration of women through education, the mobility of refugee and asylum-seeking girls and women in Africa and the Middle East, were some of the themes addressed. In the light of different national and regional realities, participants discussed trends and key challenges regarding these specific groups. They debated solutions to strengthen their protection and integration based on concrete examples of good practice. Various institutions presented their activities, such as KAFA, a Lebanese women's rights organisation, which presented its measures to raise awareness of domestic violence.
The Congress has been working for many years on the issue of migrants and refugees at local and regional level. It has adopted several recommendations and resolutions, the most recent of which, in March 2018, concerns the role and responsibilities of local and regional authorities towards unaccompanied refugee children.
The conclusions were jointly presented by Michail ANGELOPOULOS and Abdelkader EL KHISSASSI, civil and social affairs expert from the Union for the Mediterranean. The vice-president of the Congress highlighted the close links and quality of co-operation between the Congress and the North-South Centre, the Congress being a component of the North-South Centre's quadrilogue, which brings together representatives of national, parliamentary, local and regional levels and civil society. The Congress will also participate in the meeting of the Bureau and the Jury of the North-South Prize to be held in Tunis on 19 October 2018.
