About GREVIO – Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence

 

GREVIO is the body of independent experts responsible for monitoring the implementation by the parties of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention).

GREVIO draws up and publishes reports evaluating legislative and other measures taken by the parties to give effect to the provisions of the convention. In cases where action is required to prevent a serious, massive or persistent pattern of any acts of violence covered by the convention, GREVIO may initiate a special inquiry procedure. GREVIO may also adopt general recommendations on themes and concepts of the convention.

Article 66 of the Istanbul Convention governs GREVIO membership. It provides that GREVIO shall have between 10 and 15 members, depending on the number of parties to the convention.
 

Election of members

The Committee of the Parties to the Convention elects the members and ensures a balanced participation of women and men and a geographical balance, as well as multidisciplinary expertise. Experts come from a variety of professional backgrounds, such as the criminal justice and law enforcement sectors, the social sector, civil society and women's rights organisations or academia, from the fields of human rights, gender equality, violence against women and domestic violence or victim assistance and protection. GREVIO members must be nationals of the parties to the convention. Integrity, competence, independence, availability and language skills (English and/or French) are the guiding principles for the nomination and election of GREVIO members. The Convention entrusted the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to define the election procedure of the members of GREVIO. To this end, it adopted on 19 November 2014, Resolution CM/Res(2014)43 on rules of the election procedure of the members of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO).

The first ten GREVIO members were elected on 4 May 2015 for a term of four years, who held their first meeting on 21 - 23 September 2015 in Strasbourg. On that occasion, GREVIO adopted its Rules of Procedure and elected its President and Vice-Presidents.

The ratification of the Istanbul Convention by Germany on 12 October 2017 brought the total number of ratifications to 25, therefore triggering the procedure to fill the remaining five seats of GREVIO. The Committee of the Parties subsequently elected, at its 5th meeting on 24 May 2018, five additional members for a term of four years.

The GREVIO is now made up of 15 independent experts, each elected for a four-year mandate, renewable once.
 



Baseline evaluation procedure

This monitoring procedure aims to provide a comprehensive overview – a baseline – of the level of implementation of nearly all provisions of the convention by each party, It is based on a baseline questionnaire adopted by GREVIO on 11 March 2016.

•    Questionnaire on the baseline evaluation procedure

•    Provisional timetable for evaluations

The baseline evaluation procedure has been completed in relation to nearly all parties to the convention, allowing GREVIO to embark on  thematic evaluations to assess progress around specific themes. 
 



First thematic evaluation round

GREVIO’s First thematic evaluation procedure dedicated to the theme "Building trust by providing support, protection and justice" was launched in October 2022 following the adoption of its questionnaire. It aims at assessing progress in relation to a select number of provisions of the Istanbul Convention that set out standards for law enforcement agencies and criminal justice actors, for the provision of general and specialist support services for victims and for an overall victim-centred approach. 

•    Questionnaire on the procedure for the first thematic evaluation round

•    Provisional timetable for evaluation