Diotima Center submits its comments on the National Action Plan for Gender Equality 2021-2025, which was put to consultation:

• The National Action Plan for Gender Equality (NAPGE) was submitted with a significant delay, resulting in a significant gap in gender equality policies for more than one year (July 2019-January 2021).
• The NAPGE does not clearly describe the strategic choices for gender equality and does not reflect the political will to defend what has already been established and to expand at an institutional, administrative, political, social, and economic level.
• There is no mention of gender inequalities and the violation of women’s fundamental rights, and a more comprehensive, visionary, and inclusive goal of gender equality is not prescribed. Gender equality is perceived at the level of policies as a field that concerns exclusively (heteronormative) men and women, and does not include LGBTQI+ people, although a National Strategy for LGBTQI+ Equality has been prepared.
• The political will to strengthen the central bodies of the state responsible for gender equality (i.e. the General Secretariat for Gender Equality and the Research Center for Equality Issues) is lacking, the institutional shielding and autonomy of which are necessary conditions for the safeguarding of gender rights.
• Scientific documentation is lacking, while the citation of statistical and research data, which is necessary for the design and implementation of equality policies, is incomplete.
• The priority axes described (labor market, gender-based violence, decision-making centers, sectoral policies) are at a minimum, while new facts highlighted by the pandemic and the way in which this situation has affected gender rights in all fields of public and private life (e.g. increase in gender-based / domestic violence, increase in unemployment and job insecurity) are not taken into account.
• In all instances describing the actions to be taken by the various ministries, clear, realistic, and measurable objectives and indicators are missing, as well as the reference to expected results or a timetable. There are also no budget considerations, and any reference to the need to strengthen human resources in order to ensure, above all, the specification of the policies proposed and their implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. In this context, the actions resemble declarations that are presented without a system or plan, without prior dialogue and consultation, not even among co-competent ministries and state bodies that have submitted their proposals in the framework of the NAPGE.
• The country’s obligation, based on the Istanbul Convention (Law 4531/2018), for intersectional connection and cooperation between state bodies and women’s / feminist organizations for the prevention and treatment of gender-based violence, is not fulfilled. It is indicative that at no point in the NAPGE is there any reference to civil society actors, who were not invited to participate in the preparation of the NAPGE.