Choose language English Français Albanian Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Estonian Finnish Georgian German Greek Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Irish Italian Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Maltese Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swedish Turkish Ukrainian

Aa+ Aa-

• 
• About the
  Charter
  • The EU and Gender Equality
  • CEMR and gender equality
  • The Charter in brief
  • The text of the Charter
  • The signatories of the Charter
  • About the Observatory
• The Action Plan:
  Step by Step
  • Get informed
  • Consult
  • Get inspired
  • Prioritise
  • Draft
• Good
  Practices
  • Democratic accountability
  • The political role
  • General framework for equality
  • The employer role
  • Public procurement and contracts
  • The service delivery role
  • Planning and sustainable
    development
  • The regulator role
  • Twinning and international
    cooperation
• Methods
  and Evaluation
  • Methods
  • Evaluation
  • Pilot project
• Atlas of Signatories
  of the Charter
  Presentation Find a signatory Create your signatory sheet Update your data

  

The text of the Charter

In 2022, CEMR and its member associations undertook the task of updating the Charter text to ensure its continued utility and relevance for Europe’s towns and regions. The amended and expanded text was adopted by CEMR’s Policy Committee on 6 December 2022. We invite you to consult this note that explains the update and what it means for existing and potential signatories.

Part I of the Charter introduces the six fundamental principles:

1. Equality of women and men constitutes a fundamental right
2. To ensure the equality of women and men, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and disadvantage must be addressed
3. The balanced participation and representation of women and men in decision-making is a precondition of a democratic society
4. The elimination of gender stereotypes is fundamental to achieving equality of women and men
5. The integration of the gender perspective into all local and regional government activity is indispensable to advancing equality of women and men
6. Properly conceived and funded action plans and programmes are essential tools in advancing equality of women and men

Part II describes the specific steps which should be carried out by the signatories in order to implement the provisions of the Charter.

Part III presents the 39 articles by areas of local/regional competence:

• Democratic accountability
• Political role
• General framework for equality
• The employer role
• Public procurement and contracts
• Service delivery role
• Planning and sustainable development
• Regulator Role
• Twinning and international co-operation

Articles 31-39, added in 2022, address topics that touch on a variety of competences; they are presented in an expanded section which follows ‘Twinning and international cooperation’.

A signatory adhesion form is available on the last page of the Charter. Once adopted and signed, it shall be sent to the Council of European Municipalities and Regions and to the relevant national association (more information available in the Sign the Charter section).

The full text of the Charter is downloadable in PDF in 28 languages, including an Easy-to-read English version: