PL006. Women’s Health and Safety in Focus: Integrating Prevention, Advocacy, and Public Health Action

Abstract Women’s health and safety remain core priorities for achieving gender equality and resilient health systems in Europe. Despite progress, major challenges persist across multiple domains: gender-based violence (GBV), maternal and reproductive health disparities, occupational risks, and digital safety. One in three women in Europe experiences physical or sexual violence during her lifetime, yet access to survivor-centered services is highly unequal, particularly for rural, migrant, and marginalized populations including people with a disability. At the same time, systemic gaps in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care, including uneven access to contraception, safe maternal care, gender and diversity sensitive, and culturally appropriate services, continue to widen under pressure from healthcare workforce shortages and digital divides. Workplace environments expose women to persistent psychosocial risks, including harassment and violence, which remain underreported and insufficiently addressed in occupational health and safety policies. Emerging risks in digital spaces compound these vulnerabilities. The European Union (EU) Directive 2024/1385, adopted in May 2024, is the first EU law to comprehensively address violence against women, including cyberviolence, requiring all EU Member States (MS) to criminalize forms of cyberviolence, as for example non-consensual sharing of intimate material, cyberstalking, cyber harassment, and deepfakes, whilst also mandating support for victims and the implementation of comprehensive preventive measures. This Directive represents the first comprehensive EU-wide legal framework targeting violence against women, and is particularly important in terms of redefining harm, risk, injury and countermeasures from a cybersecurity perspective too, as it explicitly refers to cyberflashing, doxing, cyber incitement to violence and hatred based on gender-related aspects. The Directive cross-talks with the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), to create a stronger overall system for tackling online harms. Online harassment and exploitation are currently surging, particularly affecting adolescent girls and young women, requiring coordinated cybersecurity strategies that are still largely fragmented across MS. These developments and challenges underscore the urgent need for comprehensive, cross-sector responses that link public health, justice, education in relation to digital governance. Recent years have seen further important policy developments at both European and global levels. The EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025, the EU Directive on Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (2024), and the European Care Strategy represent significant steps toward institutionalizing gender-sensitive approaches. These frameworks established a broad range of legal obligations for prevention, victim protection, and coordinated services. They also present an opportunity to embed provisions for health care professionals’ leadership in policy implementation, reflecting EU priorities on workforce development and gender-transformative health systems. In terms of research into these topics, there is also an effort to fund key initiatives, including through Horizon Europe programs and Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV), to launch platforms for violence reporting, workplace violence monitoring systems, and to deliver digital tools SRHR monitoring and for reproductive health access. Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) has strengthened its Global Accelerators for Ending Violence Against Women, promoting survivor-centered care, multisector collaboration, and integration of mental health support. Its SRHR Operational Framework calls for digital health solutions, inclusive governance, and resilience planning to ensure continuity of care during crises. New research paradigms—such as living labs for GBV prevention and participatory models linking health, social, and legal systems—are reshaping prevention and care strategies. At the regional level, WHO Europe has launched the Special Initiative on Violence against Women and Girls (SIVAWG), aiming to strengthen health systems’ role in prevention, early detection, and survivor support. This includes developing clinical and service standards, integrating GBV response into primary and emergency care, and building national capacities for coordinated care pathways. Training initiatives in collaboration with MS and regional offices (e.g., WHO EMRO) focus on upskilling health facility managers, policymakers, and civil society actors. These frameworks align with a growing call for multisectoral action, bridging health, social protection, and justice sectors. This workshop will bring together experts from public health, policy, and clinical fields to examine these trends and share innovations. Participants will explore the latest evidence on GBV and SRH, epidemiological trends and inequities in women’s health, discuss EU and WHO action plans, and review promising interventions, from safe digital environments to intersectoral capacity building and integrated care pathways for survivors. The discussion will also emphasize intersectionality, considering the compounded vulnerabilities of migrant women, women with disabilities, and those in low-resource or conflict-affected settings. The session will focus on practical steps for aligning national strategies with European and global frameworks, building multisector partnerships, and embedding gender-sensitive approaches in health systems and policy. The session will conclude with a joint call to action, emphasizing the need for harmonized indicators, survivor-centered health pathways, investment in workforce training, and robust governance mechanisms that ensure implementation of EU and WHO commitments. Finally, the session aims to bring together women’s voices from academia, policy and civil society, brokering dialogue to raise awareness and establish a platform for monitoring initiatives, legislation and policy development.