Check against delivery - Speech by Bjørn Berge, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Parliamentary Secretary for Reforms & Equality, Ms Buttigieg,

Former EU Commissioner, Dr. Dalli,

Dear friends,

As I prepared to speak today, I thought I would begin this speech by reading aloud examples of violent tweets directed at women in politics.

But I cannot — there are words I will not say, even in quoting other people.

The writers of these words hurl abuse at women in politics for being fat or thin, or ugly or stupid.

For being black, or short, or tall, or gay.

They criticise clothes, or haircuts, or the way the women speak.

The tweets — or other posts and comments — do not engage with the substance of what these women, from all sides of politics, have to say.

Instead, they insult the women and worse, go on in many instances to threaten women with violence, rape and even murder — often using unspeakably foul language.

Dear friends,

I have been in public life for almost my entire career.

I have never been abused for my clothes, the colour of my skin, or my looks.

I’ve never been called a whore or a slut, or any of the much stronger language.

And I have never been threatened with stabbing, strangulation or rape.

Yes, because of my role, I am used to some level of security, but I have never had to take out restraining orders, worrying that someone will act on their threats.

It is 30 years since the UN published the historic Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

And yet, according to UN Women’s latest Women Political Leaders report, the number of women in executive political roles globally is not only stagnating but declining. 

As of June 2025, only 27 countries around the world have a woman serving as Head of State or Government and 103 countries have never had a woman in their top executive office.

The report also gives a series of depressing statistics about the numbers of women in office.

And even where women occupy ministerial roles, they are largely outside of the powerful portfolios, such as defence, foreign affairs or finance.

It seems there has been, not only a failure to advance, but a regression in gender equality.

I believe there are many reasons for this.

I am sorry to say that all of them boil down to bias, discrimination and prejudice.

Yes, we have been analysing and regulating — trying to eliminate gender-based hatred for many years.

The Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, the “Istanbul Convention” was ratified many years ago.

But advances in technology and artificial intelligence mean exponential increases in the amount of intimidation, humiliation and disinformation women are subject to.

And no longer a whisper in a corridor, but an artificially manipulated video or photograph, gone viral in seconds to thousands.

No wonder women are staying away from public life.

A 2016 study by the EU’s Inter-Parliamentary committee of women parliamentarians from different age groups in 39 countries, showed four out of every five were affected by psychological violence.

Humiliating sexual or sexist remarks were the most widespread form of this violence, followed by threats of death, rape, beatings or abduction.

Many of the women also experienced economic, physical and sexual violence.

Nearly two thirds of the women believed that such acts were intended primarily to dissuade them and their female colleagues from continuing in politics.

Italian research comparing violence against mayors across 14 years found that women were three times more likely to be attacked than their male counterparts.

The study showed no discernible differences in the kinds of policy decisions the women made.

They were simply more likely to be attacked because they were women.

And we can think of many recent world leaders who have had to develop incredible resilience —and should not have had to — and who must ultimately be extremely relieved to step away from their roles.

But even stepping away does not eliminate the violence.

The former Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, recently had to take out a restraining order against a stalker.

Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, lives with round-the-clock security, unlike any other ex-leader of her country.

The problem of violence of all kinds intensifies for women from minority groups.

Amnesty International research found that black women journalists and politicians in the US and UK are 84 per cent more likely to be the target of hate speech online than their white counterparts.

I believe it is hard for me to understand how my female counterparts must feel — how this must affect their decisions to speak out, particularly on some topics, but really, on any subject.

And that is a tremendous loss for all of us.

Dear friends,

We cannot say that we have true democracy if half the population does not experience equal access to the public life.

We cannot say we have true democracy where half the population experiences violence, not rarely, but regularly.

We cannot say we have true democracy where half the population is effectively silenced.

Apart from the appalling fact that their human rights are being violated — the silencing of women means that we are not benefiting from their wisdom, hearing their ideas, or progressing via forms of governance they have helped to shape.

In its recent report, UN Women recorded that in India, villages led by women saw 62 per cent more drinking water projects than those led by men.

In Norway, increased representation of women in municipal councils, led to expanded childcare coverage.

Across Africa, women parliamentarians have often united, working across party lines to push for progressive reforms.

So you see, we need women in places of power.

We need younger women and girls to aspire to take up roles in public life and leadership.

We need our best and brightest, no matter their gender, to bring their talent to our parliaments, our councils and our committees — and every level of leadership and government.

A strong, resilient and legitimate democracy requires the commitment and participation of all of its citizens.

It requires men, as well as women, to be committed to gender equality.

It requires strengthening the implementation of legislation and regulation — and that includes the Council of Europe’s own Istanbul Convention.

And it requires robust laws aimed at preventing the spread of disinformation, libel and online hate speech.

The Council of Europe has long equipped member states with tools to uphold women’s rights and democratic participation.

These form a coherent legal and policy framework.

And we have tasked a Committee of Experts with drafting clear guidance on strategies to combat technology-facilitated violence against women and girls. 

And the new Democratic Pact for Europe, a new project we have recently initiated, will recognise gender equality as a foundation for democracy — and the urgent need for stronger commitment from member states.

Dear friends,

I wish you all the very best for this conference, and I know you will have some good discussions about how to end sexism and violence against women in politics.

Together we must close the gap between what we aim for on paper and what happens in life, and end misogyny, exclusion, hate and violence.