List of issues and questions prior to the submission of the eighth periodic report of Greece *

General

1.Please provide information and statistics, disaggregated by age, disability, ethnicity, minority status and nationality, on the current situation of women in the State party to enable monitoring of the implementation of the Convention. In accordance with the State party’s obligations under articles 1 and 2 of the Convention and in line with target 5.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals, to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere, as well as in the light of the Committee’s previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/GRC/CO/7, paras. 21 (e), 22 (b) and 23 (b)), please indicate how the State party intends to improve the collection and analysis of data pertaining to the areas covered by the Convention, so as to support policymaking and programme development and to measure progress towards the implementation of the Convention and the promotion of substantive equality between women and men, including with regard to the specific areas covered herein.

Impact of the pandemic on women’s rights and gender equality

2.In line with the Committee’s guidance note on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic issued on 22 April 2020, please indicate measures implemented by the State party in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic to redress long-standing inequalities between women and men by placing women at the centre of the recovery as an economic diversification strategy; to meet the needs and uphold the rights of women and girls, including those belonging to disadvantaged and marginalized groups and women in conflict or other humanitarian situations; and to ensure that lockdown measures, whether partial or total, and post-crisis recovery plans do not see women and girls relegated to stereotyped gender roles. Please indicate measures in place to ensure that all COVID-19 crisis response and recovery efforts: (a) address and are effectively aimed at preventing gender-based violence against women and girls; (b) guarantee that women and girls have equal participation in political and public life, decision-making about the recovery, economic empowerment and service delivery; and (c) seek to ensure that women and girls benefit equally from stimulus packages, including financial support for unpaid care roles, that are aimed at mitigating the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic. Please explain how the State party is ensuring that measures taken to contain the pandemic, such as restrictions on freedom of movement or physical distancing, do not limit access by women and girls, including those from disadvantaged and marginalized groups, to justice, shelters, education, employment and health care, including sexual and reproductive health services.

Constitutional, legislative and public policy framework

3.In accordance with the obligations of the State party under articles 1 and 2 of the Convention, please provide information about legislative provisions recognizing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women and explain how the legislation in place implements the State party’s obligations under the Convention concerning the protection of women against all forms of discrimination. Please also indicate the legal remedies and compensation available to women who are subjected to any form of gender-based discrimination, particularly women belonging to ethnic or national minorities, Roma women, migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking women, women with disabilities, older women, and women and girls living in rural areas. Please provide information on progress made in the implementation of article 11 of Law No. 4604/2019 on promoting substantive gender equality, which requires all ministries and public enterprises to incorporate gender-responsive budgeting and actions, and to report the data and outcome to the General Secretariat for Family Policy and Gender Equality. Please also provide information about new plans or strategies to achieve equality between women and men, including the human, technical and financial resources allocated for their implementation, and about specific programmes addressing the rights and situation of women belonging to minorities, Roma women, women with disabilities, and migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women.

Women’s access to justice

4.Please indicate whether free legal aid is available to women without sufficient means in all areas of law, in order to ensure their access to justice, and provide information about legal arrangements to facilitate the work of non-governmental organizations and other key stakeholders providing legal assistance to women in judicial proceedings, including those before the Constitutional Court (para. 11 (d)). Please provide information about the number of complaints concerning gender-based discrimination and violence against women that have been received and processed by the Greek Ombudsman since 2016, disaggregated by age, rural or urban area, migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking status and disability. Please indicate whether the Greek Ombudsman has the authority to refer cases of gender-based discrimination against women to the courts. Please also explain the legal complaint procedures available to women in cases of discrimination by private actors, including enterprises or service providers. Please provide information about judgments in which the provisions of the Convention were applied, invoked and/or referred to directly, and efforts made to interpret national legislation in line with the Convention.

5.Please indicate measures taken to facilitate reporting of cases of gender-based violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, sexual violence, harassment or other forms of gender-based violence perpetrated online. Please report on the number of prosecutions carried out in the past five years in cases of gender-based violence against women, disaggregated by age, offence, urban or rural area, sentence imposed and the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim. Please indicate the number of victims of gender-based violence, disaggregated by age, disability, ethnicity, national minority status and nationality, who have received reparations, psychological rehabilitation and compensation in the past five years.

National machinery for the advancement of women

6.Please provide information about the human, technical and financial resources available to the Greek National Commission for Human Rights, the General Secretariat for Family Policy and Gender Equality in the area of advancement of women and gender equality and the Observatory Mechanism to Monitor the Implementation of Gender Equality Policies in Public Activity (paras. 13 and 14 (a), (b) and (c)), and about the proportion of the annual increase or decrease (over the past five years) in the Government’s recurrent budget for gender equality. Please describe any measures taken to strengthen and further develop the national machinery for the advancement of women, including in the context of the COVID 19 crisis, such as strengthened coordination arrangements. Please describe any efforts made to take into account the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Beijing Platform for Action in the State party’s measures to give effect to the Convention. Please provide information about the mechanisms of the national machinery for the advancement of women to ensure gender mainstreaming at the ministerial and local government levels, as well as across all sectors of policymaking. Please also inform the Committee about strategies in place for monitoring gender budgeting and their impact on women’s rights. Please provide information about the number of registered non-governmental organizations (national and international) that promote women’s human rights and describe the formal procedures established by the national machinery to consult women’s civil society organizations in the development of strategies and plans for gender equality and the empowerment of women and to ensure their participation in the mechanisms for implementing and monitoring such strategies and plans. Please provide specific information about budget allocations and methodologies to engage with organizations of Roma women, migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women, women with disabilities and women in rural areas.

Temporary special measures

7.Please provide information about policies, programmes and plans on the development of temporary special measures to achieve substantive equality between women and men, particularly with reference to the participation of women in public decision-making and political life, and to promote women’s equal representation in all areas of the Convention where they are underrepresented or disadvantaged, including education and employment, in accordance with article 4 (1) of the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendation No. 25 (2004) on temporary special measures. Please elaborate on the groups of women targeted by temporary special measures, the short- and long-term goals of such measures and whether they have been implemented in the public and the private sector, as well as the budget allocated and the time frames for implementing such measures. Please also inform the Committee about temporary special measures adopted to address multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women with disabilities, refugee and asylum-seeking women, Roma women, older women, lesbian, bisexual and transgender women and women belonging to minorities.

Stereotypes and harmful practices

8.Please provide information on steps taken to adopt a comprehensive strategy to eliminate patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes that discriminate against women (para. 19 (a)). Please provide information about: (a) measures taken to expand public education programmes on the negative effects of discriminatory stereotypes about the roles and responsibilities of women and men in the family and in society, in particular in rural and isolated areas of the archipelago; (b) innovative measures taken that target the media to strengthen understanding of the concept of equality between women and men and to use the education system to enhance a positive and non-stereotypical portrayal of women and men (para.19 (b) and (c)). Please also inform on programmes to combat gender stereotypes in the media and in education. With reference to joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2019) on harmful practices, please provide information on measures taken to provide redress for girls who have entered into child and/or forced marriages, rehabilitation and counselling services available to them and mechanisms to track cases of child and/or forced marriages, and the number of prosecutions and convictions of perpetrators in the reporting period. Please provide specific examples of the implementation of policies or measures that have contributed to increased understanding of sharing of domestic and family responsibilities between women and men, promoted concepts of gender equality in line with the Convention and countered attitudes that undermine the achievement of gender equality. Please provide information on cooperation with women’s civil society organizations and the private sector on measures taken to eradicate discriminatory gender stereotypes and about the monitoring of the implementation of these measures.

Gender-based violence against women

9.With reference to the Committee’s general recommendation No. 35 (2017) on gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19, please provide information on provisions defining all forms of gender-based violence against women, including physical, psychological, sexual and economic violence, as criminal offences in the Criminal Code. Please provide information on measures taken to ensure that police officers and prosecutors refrain from turning away alleged victims of gender-based violence. Please also inform the Committee on measures envisaged to revise police practices that may deter women from seeking protection from the authorities in cases where they have been subjected to, or are at risk of, gender-based violence. Please describe strategies to identify instances of hate speech and incitement to gender-based violence against women belonging to minorities and migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking women, and provide information on the number of prosecutions and convictions of perpetrators of hate speech and incitement to gender-based violence against women during the reporting period. Please inform on specific protective measures adopted to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence against refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant women and girls, especially those held in reception and identification centres at migration hotspots, other reception centres and other immigration detention facilities. Please indicate the proportion of women aged 15 to 49 years subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the past three years (disaggregated by urban or rural area, ethnicity, five-year age group and employment status). Please describe national strategies or programmes implemented during the reporting period to prevent gender-based violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres, partnerships with civil society actors to monitor and evaluate the implementation of such strategies or programmes, and the progress achieved. Please also provide information on the steps taken to ensure the meaningful participation of women’s rights organizations, in particular those working on behalf of disadvantaged and marginalized groups of women, in the implementation and monitoring of the laws related to gender-based violence against women. Please describe measures adopted by the State party to address the numerous reports by women of excessive use of force, including torture and ill-treatment, by law enforcement officials.

10.Please report on the number of shelters and crisis centres throughout the State party and the human, technical and financial resources allocated to them. Please provide information on measures aimed at increasing the accessibility of shelters for women with disabilities and on the legal and psychosocial counselling available to them. Please also inform the Committee about efforts undertaken to establish a unified mechanism for the systematic collection of statistical data on the incidence of gender-based violence against women in the State party.

Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution

11.With reference to the Committee’s general recommendation No. 38 (2020) on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration, the Committee’s previous concluding observations (paras. 22 and 23), and information from alternative sources, indicating difficulties in the State party’s identification of victims of trafficking, including children, please provide information about the current legislation, public policies and action plans to combat trafficking in persons. Please inform on the progress made in the investigation into the whereabouts of over 500 girls and boys, mostly Albanian Roma, forced to beg in the streets, who had been rounded up by the police in Athens prior to the 2004 Olympic Games and had disappeared from Agia Varvara, a State-run care home. Please provide information on the 2019 revised Criminal Code and on the introduction of mitigating circumstances for cases of trafficking and on the possibility for an alleged perpetrator of plea bargaining. Please also report on: (a) existing mechanisms and the human, technical and financial resources allocated to identifying women and girls who were victims of trafficking and exploitation during the reporting period; (b) the number of detected women and girls who are victims of trafficking, disaggregated by age, country of origin, minority status and migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking status; (c) the number of investigations, prosecutions and sentences imposed on perpetrators of trafficking in women and girls during the reporting period; and (d) the type of redress and reparations provided to women and girls who are victims of trafficking, including psychosocial support, crisis and housing shelters, compensation and restitution.

12.Please indicate measures taken to prevent trafficking in women and girls for purposes of sexual and labour exploitation, particularly migrant and refugee women, and about legislative and policy measures to facilitate women’s access to formal employment. Please describe efforts undertaken to cooperate with countries of origin of trafficking in women and girls in identifying and combating the root causes of trafficking, including low socioeconomic status, poverty and armed conflict. Please also inform the Committee about the introduction of gender-sensitive safeguards in migration and asylum procedures. Please report on programmes available to enable women to leave prostitution regardless of their country of origin, age, minority status or other factors.

Participation in political and public life

13.Please provide information on measures taken, including temporary special measures, to promote equal representation of women in political and public life (para. 25). Please provide updated data on the representation of women in political and public life, including in relation to the most recent national, regional and municipal elections, the foreign service and in international organizations. Please provide information about measures taken to better understand and address the barriers to the representation of women in the political sphere. Please indicate whether concrete goals and timelines have been adopted, including for women belonging to ethnic minority groups, for example, through statutory quotas in the parliament, political parties, senior government positions, public administration and the foreign service. Please also elaborate on the outcomes achieved, supported by data. Please describe the State party’s legal framework with regard to political harassment and measures to promote the political participation of women on an equal basis with men. Please indicate measures implemented by the State party to support women candidates in campaigning for elections. Please provide information on training provided on gender equality for politicians, journalists, teachers, local officials and civil society leaders (para. 25 (c)).

Education

14.Please provide information on: (a) the enrolment at all levels of education and in vocational training of women and girls in urban and rural areas; (b) the proportion of female students and graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and in information and communication technologies ; (c) measures to promote women and girls choice of non-traditional fields of education and career paths; (d) the programmes and budget allocations for developing scholarships and study grants targeting women; and (e) the criteria for distributing education grants among women belonging to marginalized groups. Please provide information about continuing education, the percentage of women therein and scholarships available to them. Please also provide statistics on the enrolment rates of girls with disabilities in mainstream schools and special schools, and measures taken to ensure their access to good-quality inclusive education. Please provide information about education on sexual and reproductive health and rights in accessible formats, including measures to review school curricula to include awareness-raising on gender equality and to eliminate sexist stereotypes in education.

Employment

15.Please provide information on measures taken to reduce the persistent gender wage gap, particularly in the private sector, which, among other things, has an adverse effect on women’s pension benefits. Please provide information, disaggregated by age, urban or rural area and disability, about: (a) the nationwide employment rate of women and women’s employment across the different sectors of economy; and (b) the unemployment rate of women compared with that of men, the number of women in the informal sector of economy and measures taken to address unemployment among women, as well as the impact of pregnancy and short-term contracts on job security for women. Information shows that only 30.7 per cent of women hold a full-time position and that twice as many women (14 per cent) as men (7 per cent) work part-time. Please provide information on measures taken to reduce horizontal and vertical occupational segregation and address the concentration of women in part-time and low-paid jobs. Please provide information on measures taken to eliminate discrimination in the labour market against mothers and pregnant women in relation to hiring, career advancement, conditions of employment, pay and denial of paid maternity leave, particularly in the private sector. Please indicate the current coverage of childcare facilities and support in the community for women and men with parental responsibilities, in rural and urban areas.

16.Please explain the legal framework concerning retirement and disability pensions and specific measures aimed at increasing women’s access to social protection schemes, including non-contributory schemes targeting women with disabilities or women from marginalized groups. Please provide information on concrete measures taken to ensure access to formal employment for migrant, asylum-seeking, refugee, Roma women, as well as women with disabilities and other marginalized groups of women. Please also provide data on the number of migrant women employed as domestic workers and information on measures taken to ensure that women migrant domestic workers are guaranteed the same level of protection and benefits as other workers. Please inform the Committee on steps taken to ratify the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), of the International Labour Organization.

Health

17.With regard to the recommendations of the Committee (para. 31 (c)), please provide information on progress made towards the adoption and implementation of a comprehensive programme on sexual and reproductive health and rights and the human, technical and financial resources allocated for its implementation. Please also provide detailed information on steps taken to ensure the free, active and meaningful participation of women’s organizations, in particular those working on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, in awareness raising on issues pertaining to women’s health. Information before the Committee shows that over half of the births in Greece occur by caesarean section, placing the State party as one of the countries with the highest prevalence of caesarean sections performed without medical necessity worldwide. Please provide information on measures taken to reduce excessive reliance on caesarean sections, including by training medical personnel on natural birth and introducing stricter controls on the use of caesarean sections.

18.Please elaborate on the steps taken to ensure unimpeded and effective access to legal abortion and post-abortion services for all women in the State party, including by ensuring mandatory referrals in cases of conscientious objections by institutions; to ensure that information provided by health-care professionals to women seeking abortion is science-based and covers the risks of having or not having an abortion; and to ensure the confidentiality of the personal data of women and girls seeking abortion. Please provide information on the safeguards implemented to ensure access to appropriate and safe childbirth procedures that are in line with adequate standards of care, respect for women’s autonomy and the requirement of free, prior and informed consent.

Economic empowerment of women

19.Please provide information on measures taken during the reporting period to identify and provide assistance to women disproportionately affected by austerity measures. Please also provide information about: (a) access of women to bank loans in urban and rural areas during the reporting period; (b) measures to support women entrepreneurs throughout the State party, start-up businesses owned by women and women beneficiaries of finance schemes for businesses, including microcredits and appropriate technology for establishing and developing small and medium-sized enterprises, disaggregated by urban or rural area, age, disability and migrant, refugee or asylum-seeking status; and (c) the levels of poverty affecting women of all ages and measures to combat the social exclusion of women, particularly older women.

Rural women

20.Please provide information on measures adopted during the reporting period with the aim of increasing access by rural women to land ownership. Please provide information about: (a) legal and policy frameworks to protect the natural environment and rural women’s livelihoods; and (b) mechanisms to mainstream gender equality and consult rural women organizations regarding the protection and management of natural and other assets and the water supply.

Disadvantaged and marginalized groups of women

21.In view of the intersecting forms of discrimination against disadvantaged and marginalized groups of women in the State party, please provide information about the situation of the groups of women outlined below:

(a)Migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women. Please indicate the measures taken to ensure the protection of all migrant women, including undocumented migrant women, who are at particular risk of violence. Please report on the efforts made to strengthen labour inspections of the workplaces of migrant women, including private households. Please mention, and include examples of, efforts to take an inclusive and non-selective approach in upholding the principle of non-refoulement and a gender-sensitive approach to the continuing refugee inflows and asylum claims, including in procedural matters, in line with the rights covered in the Convention and in the Committee’s general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women. Please also provide information about: (a) measures taken to combat discrimination against migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women, particularly with regard to their access to education, employment, health care and housing; (b) measures to ensure the accessibility of safe houses, crisis centres and maternal homes and to provide women referred to such facilities with interpretation services; (c) reintegration services set up during the reporting period and about the results achieved; and (d) international cooperation programmes at the regional or international levels aimed at addressing the vulnerability of migrant and asylum-seeking women and ensuring the safety of women facing deportation to their country of origin.

(b)Roma women. Please provide information on the steps taken to review laws and policies on land and housing, with the participation of Roma women, to ensure that they can fully enjoy their rights to adequate housing, education and family and private life without discrimination and fear of segregation, forced eviction and displacement. Please report on efforts made to establish and enforce a strict code of conduct for police to effectively ensure respect for women’s human rights in all police operations.

(c)Women with disabilities. Please provide information on measures taken to include women and girls with disabilities in all policies and strategies to promote equal opportunities for women and men, in particular with regard to education, employment, access to justice, protection against violence and access to sexual and reproductive health care services and poverty reduction programmes. Please also report on how free and informed consent is ensured for women with disabilities prior to any medical treatment and on any existing exceptions to that universal right. Please indicate the measures adopted to protect women with disabilities living in institutions from violence and abuse and to eliminate practices involving physical and mechanical restraints.

Marriage and family relations

22.With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations (para. 37) please inform on steps taken: (a) to fully harmonize the application of local Sharia law and the ordinary laws in the State party with the provisions on non-discrimination of the Convention, in particular with regard to marriage and inheritance; (b) to strengthen enforcement efforts to prohibit polygamy and child and forced marriages, in line with joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2019) on harmful practices; (c) to train legal professionals, including the judiciary, ethnic communities and religious leaders on the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendations; (d) to review the Family Law with a view to extending existing legal provisions to couples living in de facto unions, including same-sex unions, and introducing provisions regulating the distribution of property to ensure women’s equal share in all property accumulated during the union. Please explain the current legislative framework concerning marriage and family relations, in particular how it guarantees that women and men have equal rights and responsibilities during marriage, at its dissolution and in all family matters, including inheritance, property rights and child custody. Please specify if there is any subsidy available for single-parent families in the absence of child maintenance payments.

Climate change

23.In the light of information about the impact and vulnerability of the State party to natural disasters, such as floods and forest fires, which are expected to occur more frequently owing to climate change, please describe how women’s organizations are consulted and participate in decision-making procedures regarding climate change with the aim of establishing legal frameworks on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction that are responsive to gender equality and the rights of women, in line with the Committee general recommendation No. 37 (2017) on gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in the context of climate change.

Sustainable Development Goals

24.Please provide information about measures taken to integrate a gender perspective into all efforts aimed at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Additional information

25.Please provide any additional information deemed relevant with regard to legislative, policy, administrative and any other measures taken to implement the provisions of the Convention and the Committee’s concluding observations since the consideration of the previous periodic reports, in 2015. Such measures may include recent laws, developments, plans and programmes, recent ratifications of human rights instruments or any other information that the State party considers relevant. Please note that, further to the issues raised herein, the State party will be expected, during the dialogue, to respond to additional questions relating to areas covered by the Convention.