ABOUT THE CONVENTION

The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) was adopted by the Committee of Ministers and opened for signature in Istanbul on 11 May 2011. The Convention entered into force on 1 August 2014, and recognizes gender-based violence against women as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination.

It focuses on several areas, obliging States Parties to the Convention to take a number of measures to act against violence against women and domestic violence.

The Istanbul Convention is the first legally-binding instrument which “creates a comprehensive legal framework and approach to combat violence against women” and is focused on preventing domestic violence, protecting victims and prosecuting accused offenders.

It characterizes violence against women as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination (Art.3(a)). Countries should exercise due diligence when preventing violence, protecting victims and prosecuting perpetrators (Art. 5). The convention also contains a definition of gender: for the purpose of the Convention gender is defined in Article 3(c) as “the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men”. Moreover, the treaty establishes a series of offences characterized as violence against women. States which ratify the Convention must criminalize several offences, including: psychological violence (Art.33); stalking (Art.34); physical violence (Art.35); sexual violence, including rape, explicitly covering all engagement in non-consensual acts of a sexual nature with a person (Art.36), forced marriage (Art.37); female genital mutilation (Art.38), forced abortion and forced sterilisation (Art.39). The Convention states that sexual harassment must be subject to “criminal or other legal sanction” (Art. 40). The convention also includes an article targeting crimes committed in the name of “so-called honour” (Art. 42).

Prevention

States should regularly run awareness-raising campaigns, train professionals in close contact with victims, include within teaching materials issues such as gender equality and non-violent conflict resolution in interpersonal relationships, set up treatment programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence and for sex offenders, work closely with NGOs, and involve the media and the private sector in eradicating gender stereotypes and promoting mutual respect.

Protection

This includes granting the police the power to remove a perpetrator of domestic violence from their home, ensuring people’s access to adequate information on available services in a language they understand, setting up easily accessible shelters in sufficient numbers and in an adequate geographical distribution, making available state-wide 24/7 telephone helplines free-of–charge, and setting up easily accessible rape crisis or sexual violence referral centres.

Prosecution

The Convention defines and criminalises the various forms of violence against women, including domestic violence. States that have signed and ratified the treaty must introduce a number of new offences where these do not already exist, for example, psychological and physical violence, sexual violence and rape, stalking, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, forced abortion and forced sterilisation. In addition, States Parties will need to ensure that culture, tradition or so-called “honour” are not regarded as a justification for any of the above-listed courses of conduct. States parties will have to take a range of measures to ensure the effective investigation of any allegation of violence against women, including cases of domestic violence. This means that law enforcement agencies will have to respond to calls for help, collect evidence, and assess the risk of further violence to adequately protect those at risk. In addition, judicial proceedings should be run in a manner that respects the rights of victims at all stages of the proceedings and that avoids secondary victimisation.

Development of integrated policies

It is difficult for one institution alone to act against violence. For that reason, the Convention asks States Parties to implement comprehensive and co-ordinated policies involving government agencies, NGOs, and national, regional and local parliaments and authorities. The aim is for policies to prevent and combat violence against women, including domestic violence, to be carried out at all levels of government and by all relevant agencies and institutions.

The Convention sends a clear message to the whole of society, that violence is never the right way to solve difficulties and cannot lead to a state of peace – either in private or public life. It reinforces the importance of understanding that violence against women is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. While the focus of the Convention is on all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence, it also recognises that there are other victims of domestic violence, such as boys and men. This may include gay men, transgender men or men that do not conform to what society considers to be appropriate behaviour. The Convention devotes an entire chapter to women migrants and asylum-seekers facing gender-based violence. It also recognises the work of NGOs, and seeks to ensure greater political and financial support for their work.

The Convention establishes a monitoring mechanism, consisting of two bodies:

GREVIO (Group of Experts on Action Against Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence), which is a body of independent and impartial experts known for their expertise in the fields of human rights, gender equality, violence against women, or assistance to and protection of victims; or having demonstrated relevant professional experience in any of these fields. GREVIO draws up and publishes reports on legislative and other measures taken by countries that have ratified the Convention, designed to give effect to its provisions (evaluation procedure). In specific circumstances, the group may initiate inquiries (inquiry procedure).

The Committee of Parties is composed of representatives of the Parties to the Convention. The Committee may adopt recommendations on measures to be taken to implement conclusions contained in GREVIO’s reports. The Committee also supervises the implementation of its own recommendations, examines the findings of any inquiry conducted by GREVIO members, and considers any necessary measures pursuant to these findings.

The Istanbul Convention is in many ways an innovative document

It is the first international document that contains a definition of gender.

It calls for the involvement of all relevant state agencies and services, so that violence against women and domestic violence are tackled in a co-ordinated way. This means that agencies and NGOs are encouraged not to act alone, but to work out protocols for co-operation.

It criminalises offences, such as female genital mutilation, forced marriage, stalking, forced abortion and forced sterilisation. This means that states will be obliged, for the first time, to legislate against these serious offences.

It recognises violence against women as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination. States are held responsible if they do not respond adequately to such violence.

It obliges states which have signed and ratified the Convention to invite their parliaments to participate in the monitoring process.

History

The Council of Europe has undertaken a series of initiatives to promote the protection of women against violence since the 1990s. In particular, these initiatives have resulted in the adoption, in 2002, of the Council of Europe Recommendation Rec(2002)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the protection of women against violence, and the running of a Europe-wide campaign, from 2006 to 2008, to combat violence against women, including domestic violence.The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has also taken a firm political stance against all forms of violence against women. It has adopted a number of resolutions and recommendations calling for legally-binding standards on preventing, protecting against and prosecuting the most severe and widespread forms of gender-based violence.

National reports, studies and surveys revealed the magnitude of the problem in Europe. The campaign in particular showed a large variation in Europe of national responses to violence against women and domestic violence. Thus, the need for harmonized legal standards to ensure that victims benefit from the same level of protection everywhere in Europe became apparent. The Ministers of Justice of Council of Europe member states began discussing the need to step up protection from domestic violence, in particular intimate partner violence.

The Council of Europe decided it was necessary to set comprehensive standards to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence. In December 2008, the Committee of Ministers set up an expert group mandated to prepare a draft convention in this field. Over the course of just over two years, this group, called the CAHVIO (Ad Hoc Committee for preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence), developed a draft text. During the later stage of drafting of the convention, UK, Italy, Russia, and the Holy See proposed several amendments to limit the requirements provided by the convention. These amendments were criticized by Amnesty International. The final draft of the convention was produced in December 2010.

Structure

The convention contains 81 articles separated into 12 chapters. Its structure follows the structure of the Council of Europe’s most recent conventions. The structure of the instrument is based on the “four Ps”: Prevention, Protection and support of victims, Prosecution of offenders and Integrated Policies. Each area foresees a series of specific measures. The convention also establishes obligations in relation to the collection of data and supporting research in the field of violence against women (Art. 11).

he preamble recalls the European Convention on Human Rights, European Social Charter and Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings as well as international human rights treaties by United Nations and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In Article 2, this Convention indicates that the provisions shall apply in time of peace and also in situations of armed conflicts in violence against women and domestic violence. Article 3 defines key terms:

“violence against women” is “violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women and shall mean all acts of gender-based violation that result in, or are likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological, or economic harm or suffering to women including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life”,

“domestic violence”: “all acts of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence that occur with the family or domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the victim.”

“gender”: means “the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men.”

“gender-based violence against women”: means “violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately.”

Article 4 prohibits several types of discrimination stating: The implementation of the provisions of this convention by the Parties, in particular measure to protect the rights of victims, shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, gender, race, colour, language political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, state of health, disability, marital status, migrant or refugee status, or other status.