EU is to sign the international Convention on preventing and combating violence against women

Published:

On 11 May 2017, the Council of Europe adopted a decision on signing the Istanbul Convention, international Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The Istanbul Convention was presented by the Council of Europe in 2011 and recognised violence against women as a human rights violation. It criminalises the various forms of violence against women and domestic violence and focuses on measures of preventing violence, protecting and supporting victims and witnesses, and prosecuting the perpetrators.

All EU member states have already signed the Convention and the EU joining the Convention will ensure complementarity between the national and EU level. However, the full accession requires the adoption of the decisions on the conclusion of the Convention by the Parliament. The ETUCE Secretariat continues to monitor the EU actions to combat violence against women.

Full statement and a factsheet on the Convention and other EU actions in this field can be found here.