SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls



The Congress actively supports efforts to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls at the local and regional level through both the adoption of texts and participation by its members in events/conferences. To strengthen gender equality, the Congress has developed activities and encourages local authorities to provide political efforts to: increase the decision-making power of women, guarantee women’s rights, and ensure the integration of women from religious and cultural minorities.
Furthermore, the Congress is undertaking work on women's participation in public life, equality between men and women, as well as on women’s rights, for example by introducing quotas in its national delegations, adopting resolutions and recommendations on gender equality, and contributing to actions fighting violence against women.
- REC449 (2020) and RES459 (2020) - Fighting sexist violence against women in politics at local and regional level
- RES405 (2016) - Gender Budgeting
- REC390 (2016) and RES404 (2016) - Women's political participation and representation at local and regional levels
- REC370 (2015) and RES380 (2015) - Guaranteeing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people's rights: a responsibility for Europe's towns and regions
- RES318 (2010) - Cultural Integration of Muslim Women in European Cities
- REC288 (2010) and RES303 (2010) - Achieving sustainable gender equality in local and regional political life
- REC260 (2009) and RES279 (2009) - Combating domestic violence against women

Through its co-operation activities, the Congress stresses the importance of adopting and implementing the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life, launched by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) in 2006, as a sound step towards gender equality, gender mainstreaming and the promotion of equal opportunities for women and men in local political and public life.
