WUNRN
European Women's Lobby
COUNCIL OF EUROPE FINALIZES FIRST EUROPEANCONVENTION
ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN - NEXT TO PACE & MINISTERS
28 January 2011
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The draft Convention had been
transmitted to the Committee of Ministers, who in turn transmitted it to the
Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) for its opinion. It is foreseen that the PACE
would adopt the text in March and the Convention would be signed by the
Committee of Ministers in May.
The EWL has been following the
drafting of the Convention from its beginnings in April 2009 to these final
stages, and has actively called for the gender dimension of violence against
women to be recognised (See EWL Lobbying Kit). Many EWL members have
undertaken specific action at national level towards their government
representatives, to explain the importance of such a Convention for the protection
and better support of women against male violence.
It was important to
counterbalance the definition of domestic violence as gender-neutral which was
promoted by a significant number of national delegations, covering all forms of
violence within the family. The inclusion of family members threatened the
ability of the Convention to address the root causes of violence against women
in all member states. A compromise was finally reached, defining the scope of
the Convention as applying to ‘all forms of violence against women, including
domestic violence, which affects women disproportionately’ and encouraging
Parties to apply the Convention to all victims of domestic violence, while
paying ‘particular attention to women victims of gender-based violence in
implementing the provisions of this Convention’ (Article 2).
Today, the draft Convention
represents the first European binding text to focus on all forms of violence
against women! The EWL is calling on the EU to become a party to the Convention
as this would represent a first step to action by the European Union on male
violence against women.