The Council of Europe Task Force to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence (EG-TFV)

The Council of Europe Task Force to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence (EG-TFV), was set up following a decision taken at the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe (Warsaw 16-17 May 2005). The Action Plan adopted during this Summit defines the future action of the Council of Europe and envisages activities to combat violence against women, including domestic violence. In Chapter II.4 it spells out that

“The Council of Europe will take measures to combat violence against women, including domestic violence. It will set up a task force to evaluate progress at national level and establish instruments for quantifying developments at pan-European level with a view to drawing up proposals for action. A pan-European campaign to combat violence against women, including domestic violence, will be prepared and conducted in close co-operation with other European and national actors, including NGOs.“

In accordance herewith, eight international experts in the field of preventing and combating violence against women were appointed to the Task Force by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. Proposals for appointment were made by the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG) for six members of the Task Force as well as by the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Regional and Local Authorities of the Council of Europe for one member respectively. These appointments were made in consultation with the Committee of Ministers' Rapporteur on Equality between Women and Men (RAP-EG) and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.

The members of the Task Force are:

Proposed by the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG):

Ms Ayse Feride ACAR (Turkey)
Ms Dagmara BARANIEWSKA (Poland)
Ms Helena EWALDS (Finland)
Mr Manuel LISBOA (Portugal)
Ms Rosa LOGAR (Austria)
Ms Dubravka ŠIMONOVIĆ (Croatia), Chair until February 2007, Vice-Chair as of March 2007

Proposed by the Parliamentary Assembly:

Ms Hilary FISHER, Vice-Chair until February 2007, Chair as of February 2007

Proposed by the Congress of Regional and Local Authorities:

Mr Chris GREEN (United Kingdom)

The Task Force is a Council of Europe sui generis ad-hoc committee directly answerable to the Committee of Ministers. Its terms of reference result directly from the Action Plan adopted at the Third Summit. Its tasks were examined and adopted in September 2005 by the Committee of Ministers.

The expected results of the Task Force, as outlined by the Committee of Ministers in the framework of the Follow-up to the Action Plan adopted during the Third Summit of the Council of Europe, are the following:

· to evaluate the effective functioning of the measures for preventing and combating violence against women adopted at national and international level;

· to make proposals for revising these measures or for adopting new measures;

· to develop a method to assist member states to adopt practical policies for combating violence against women;

· to assess the results of the monitoring framework based on indicators prepared by the CDEG in 2004 which aims to evaluate progress in the implementation of the Recommendation Rec(2002)5 on the protection of women against violence;

· to further identify other possible roles of men in the context of family violence, not just as perpetrators of violence, but as victims of family violence, as well as their role in both preventing violence within the family and protecting victims of such violence;

· to prepare a blueprint for the Council of Europe Campaign and to identify the main subjects to be highlighted in preventing and combating violence against women during the Campaign as well as the activities to be conducted there under.