The youth sector, the EYF and gender

The Youth Department has been integrating for many years a gender dimension in its policy, educational approaches and practices through the European Youth Centres and the European Youth Foundation.  

The main gender issues addressed within the Youth Programme:

• gender-based violence and trafficking;
• sexual and reproductive rights;
• sexual orientation and gender identity;
• combating discrimination against women, including misogyny and sexism – including in social media. The No Hate Speech Movement team and  the Gender Equality Division jointly organised a seminar Combating Sexist Hate Speech, on 10-12 February 2016;
• heteronormativity and discrimination of “invisible” groups such as intersex (the Gender Matters manual is a helpful resource when addressing heteronormativity and gender identity);
• combating discrimination and homophobia.

Gender is also part of the major projects of the Youth Sector:

• The Enter! Recommendation integrates the gender dimension;
• Roma Youth Action Plan (addresses multiple discrimination issue);
• No Hate Speech Movement campaign (specific action days concerning homophobia, misogynist attitudes and sexism: 8 March on sexist hate speech, 22 July on hate crime, and 10 December on Human Rights online).

The European Youth Foundation promotes the integration of a “gender perspective” in the activities it supports run by non-governmental youth organisations, contributing to the Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy (Objective 5: “Achieving Gender Mainstreaming in all policies and measures”) and the Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)5 of the Committee of Ministers on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.