Today, Christina Olsen from the Council of Europe Secretariat of the monitoring mechanism of the Istanbul Convention, delivered a keynote speech on “Women’s rights are human rights” at the 20th WAVE Conference: “The Importance of Women’s Specialist Services in Tackling Violence against Women”.
The speech focused on the human rights based approach of the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence and the recognised standard in international law that violence against women is a violation of women’s fundamental rights and a form of discrimination. The current backlash against women’s rights was also addressed and the intervention provided an opportunity to recall the fundamental role of the Council of Europe and its different bodies, including the monitoring structures under the Istanbul Convention (GREVIO and the Committee of the Parties) in upholding women’s right to live a life free from violence.
