The convention has a strong focus on prevention. What does this mean for parties?

In simple terms, preventing violence against women and domestic violence can save lives and reduce human suffering. Governments that agree to be bound by the convention will have to do the following:

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

Preventing violence against women and domestic violence should not be left to the state alone. In fact, the convention calls on all members of society, in particular men and boys, to help reach its goal of creating a Europe free from all forms of violence against women and domestic violence. Violence against women is pervasive because misogynistic attitudes towards women persist. Each and every one of us can help challenge gender stereotypes, harmful traditional practices and discrimination against women. It is only by achieving real gender equality that violence against women can be prevented.

How does the convention improve the protection of victims?

When preventive measures have failed and violence incidents have happened, it is important to provide victims and witnesses with protection and support. This means police intervention and protection as well as specialised support services such as shelters, telephone hotlines etc. It also means making sure that general social services understand the realities and concerns of victims of domestic violence and violence against women and support them accordingly in their quest to rebuild/resume their lives.

Some examples of measures set forth in the Convention include:

• Granting the police the power to remove a perpetrator of domestic violence from his or her home - In situations of immediate danger, the police need to be able to guarantee the safety of the victim. In many instances this may mean ordering the perpetrator for a specified period of time to leave the family home and to stay away from the victim.
• Ensuring access to adequate information - After experiencing violence, victims are usually traumatised and need easy access to clear and concise information on available services, in a language they understand.
• Setting up easily accessible shelters in sufficient numbers and in an adequate geographical distribution - Victims come from a wide range of social realities. For instance, women from rural areas or disabled women need to have access to shelters as much as women from big cities.
• Making available state-wide 24/7 telephone helplines free of charge - Specialised helplines for victims of violence against women and domestic violence can direct the victims to the services they need. They are essential in offering immediate expert advice and pointing victims towards safety.
• Setting-up easily accessible rape crisis or sexual violence referral centres - These centres provide immediate medical counseling, trauma care and forensic services and are extremely rare across Europe. It is important to make these services more widely available.

It should be borne in mind that it is not enough to set up protection structures and support services for victims. It is equally important to make sure victims are informed of their rights and know where and how to get help.

How does the convention ensure the prosecution of perpetrators?

The convention defines and criminalises the various forms of violence against women as well as domestic violence. This is one of the many achievements of the convention. To give effect to the convention, parties will have to introduce a number of new offenses where they do not exist. These may include: psychological and physical violence, sexual violence including rape, stalking, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, forced abortion and forced sterilisation. In addition, parties will need to ensure that culture, tradition or violence related to so-called honour are not regarded as a justification for any of the above-listed courses of conduct.

Once these new offenses have found their way into the national legal systems, there is no reason not to prosecute offenders. On the contrary, state parties will have to take a range of measures to ensure the effective investigation of any allegation of violence against women and domestic violence. This means that the law enforcement agencies will have to respond to calls for help, collect evidence and assess the risk of further violence to adequately protect the victim.

Furthermore, state parties will have to carry out judicial proceedings in a manner that respects the rights of victims at all stages of the proceedings and that avoid secondary victimisation.

What are integrated policies?

The convention is based on the premise that no single agency or institution can deal with violence against women and domestic violence alone. An effective response to such violence requires concerted action by many different actors. The convention therefore asks state parties to implement comprehensive and co-ordinated policies involving government agencies, NGOs as well as national, regional and local parliaments and authorities. The aim is that policies to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence are carried out at all levels of government and by all relevant agencies and institutions. This can, for example, be done by drawing up a national plan of action that assigns each agency a particular role to take on or task to fulfil.

The experience from countries where this is already being done shows that results are improved when law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, NGOs, child protection agencies and other relevant partners join forces on a particular case.

In addition to addressing governments and non-governmental organisations, national parliaments and local authorities, the convention sends a clear message to society as a whole. Every man, every woman, every boy and girl, every parent, every boy/girl-friend must learn that violence - any kind of violence - is not the right way to solve difficulties and live a peaceful life. Everybody must understand that now and in the future violence against women and domestic is no longer tolerated.

The Istanbul Convention sets up a monitoring mechanism to assess how its provisions are put into practice and to provide guidance to parties.

This monitoring mechanism consists of two distinct, but interacting, bodies:

• an independent expert body, the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO), which is composed of 15 members. GREVIO draws up and publishes reports evaluating legislative and other measures taken by parties to give effect to the provisions of the convention;
• a political body, the Committee of the Parties, which is composed of representatives of the parties to the Istanbul Convention. On the basis of GREVIO’s reports, the Committee adopts recommendations concerning the measures to be taken to implement the findings contained in GREVIO’s report. It also supervises the implementation of its own recommendations.

Violence against women and domestic violence cannot be addressed without looking at gender equality issues. Women may be subjected to violence because of their gender. Certain types of violence, in particular domestic violence, affect women disproportionately.

Consequently, the convention frames the eradication of violence against women and domestic violence in a context of achieving de jure and de facto equality. Its Preamble recognises the structural nature of such violence, which is both a cause and a consequence of unequal power relations between women and men and which limits the full advancement of women. To overcome inequality, the convention requires parties to implement gender equality policies and to empower women. It is not about treating women as helpless victims but about making sure they can rebuild their lives.

While the focus of the convention is on all forms of violence against women, which includes domestic violence committed against women, the convention 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 constitute appropriate behaviour. Parties can choose whether or not to apply the convention to these victims of domestic violence. Applying a gender perspective to these groups of victims is equally important.

Many forms of discrimination, harmful practices and gender stereotypes are the starting point for violent behaviour. For this reason, the convention specifically tackles gender stereotypes in the areas of awareness-raising, education, the media and the training of professionals. It also creates the obligation to ensure that both protective and support measures as well as investigations and judicial proceedings be based on a gendered understanding of violence. The concept of gender is thus firmly embedded in the convention.

Migrant women, with or without documents, and women asylum-seekers are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence. Although their reasons for leaving their country vary, as does their legal status, both groups are at increased risk of violence and face similar difficulties in overcoming it. For this reason, the convention prohibits discrimination on the grounds of migrant or refugee status when it comes to implementing its provisions. It also requires that measures be taken to prevent such violence and support victims while taking into account the needs of vulnerable persons.

Moreover, the convention devotes an entire chapter to women migrants and asylum-seekers facing gender-based violence. It contains a number of obligations that aim at generating a gender-sensitive understanding of violence against migrant women and women asylum-seekers. For example, it introduces the possibility of granting migrant women, who are victims of domestic violence and whose residence status depends on that of their spouse or partner, with their own residence permit when the relationship ends. This allows a victim of domestic violence to leave the relationship without loosing her residence status. It also creates, for instance, the obligation to allow migrant victims who left and then did not return to the country they migrated to because they were forced into marriage in another country to regain their residence status.

Furthermore, the chapter includes provisions establishing the obligation to recognise gender-based violence against women as a form of persecution within the meaning of the 1951 Refugee Convention and contains the obligation to ensure that a gender-sensitive interpretation be given when establishing refugee status.

It is important to note that women seeking asylum have specific protection concerns and worries that are different to those of men. In particular, women may be fleeing gender-based violence but may be unable or unwilling to disclose relevant information during a refugee determination process that does not respect cultural sensitivities. Furthermore, unaccompanied women are often exposed to sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and are unable to protect themselves. In order to address the particular issues linked to women asylum-seekers, the convention establishes the obligation to introduce gender-sensitive procedures, guidelines and support services in the asylum process. Introducing a gender perspective into procedures allows for differences between women and men to be taken into account.

Another provision that is included in the convention reiterates the obligation to respect a well established principle of asylum and of international refugee protection, which is the principle of non-refoulement. The convention establishes the obligation to ensure that victims of violence against women, who are in need of protection, regardless of their status or residence, are not returned to any country where their life would be at risk or where they may be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

In many member states, the overwhelming majority of services for victims of domestic violence, but also services for victims of sexual violence, stalking, forced marriage and others, are run by non-governmental or civil society organisations. These organisations have a long-standing tradition of providing shelter, legal advice, medical and psychological counselling. They also run hotlines and other essential services. However, many such services experience funding insecurity and operate in small geographic areas only. In most countries, the overall number of available services does not match the demand of victims. Often, this is because the provision of services is not considered a necessity, but a voluntary activity of NGOs.

For this reason, the convention recognises the work of NGOs and seeks to ensure greater political and financial support for their work. It includes provisions that oblige parties to encourage and support their work by tapping into their expertise, involving them as partners in multi-agency co-operation and supporting their awareness-raising efforts. This can help to enhance results of measures taken to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence. Supporting NGOs and civil society organisations means enabling them to carry out their work in the best possible way, for example by setting up co-operative structures between law enforcement agencies and shelters, advertising NGO hotlines and services in government information material but also ensuring relevant public and political support. The convention also includes the obligation for parties to allocate appropriate financial and human resources for activities carried out by non-governmental organisations and civil society.

Finally, NGOs will also play a role in the monitoring of the implementation of the convention. The group of experts in charge of the monitoring process may receive information from NGOs on a party‘s implementation of the convention which would complement the information provided by the party itself.

Exposure to physical, sexual or psychological violence and abuse has a severe impact on children. It breeds fear, causes trauma and adversely affects their development. Violence against women and domestic violence in its direct or indirect form can have harmful consequences for their health and lives. In the case of domestic violence it is acknowledged that children do not need to be directly affected by the violence to be considered victims as witnessing domestic violence is just as traumatising.

The convention covers various forms of violence against women and domestic violence. Victims of such violence are typically girls and women of all ages. Boys and men, however, may also fall victim of certain types of violence that fall within the scope of the convention, in particular domestic violence and forced marriage. For this reason, states are encouraged to extend the application of the measures set out in the convention to boys and men.

Furthermore, there are several provisions that deal explicitly with children. They require parties to do the following:

I. In the area of prevention:

1. conduct or promote awareness-raising campaigns on the different manifestations of violence against women and domestic violence and their consequences on children.

2. develop and promote, in co-operation with the private sector, skills among children, parents and educators concerning how to deal with violent and harmful content in the communications environment.

3. ensure that preventive measures address the specific needs of child victims.

II. In the area of protection and support:

1. provide specialist support services to women victims of gender-based violence and their children.

2. set up shelters that provide safe accommodation for women and their children.

3. ensure that the rights and needs of child witnesses are taken into account when providing protection and support services to victims.

4. ensure that significant incidents of violence against women and domestic violence are taken into account when determining custody and visitation rights.

III. In the area of prosecution:

1. criminalise the act of intentionally forcing a child to enter into a marriage, or that of luring the child to another country in order to force her or him to enter into a marriage.

2. ensure that criminal legislation covers the incitement of a child to commit crimes in the name of “honour”.

3. ensure that child victims and child witnesses are afforded special protection measures at all stages of investigations and judicial proceedings.

The Council of Europe works extensively on children’s rights and on the protection of children from violence. For more information, please visit www.coe.int/children.