WUNRN
COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONVENTION ON
PREVENTING & COMBATING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN & DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE
________________________________________________________________
Human Rights Watch
EUROPE - PROTECTING WOMEN FROM
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
September 1, 2011
A Turkish woman shouts slogans on
March 8, 2009 in
The Convention on Domestic Violence –
launched in May and so far ratified by 15 countries – calls for establishing
hotlines, shelters, medical and forensic services, counseling, and legal aid
services. It is designed to help the estimated 25 percent of women in the
European region who experience physical or sexual abused in their lifetime.
Hamiyet, a member of
But a new Council of Europe convention offers protection for victims of
domestic violence like Hamiyet across
The Convention on Domestic Violence – launched in May and so far
ratified by 15 countries – calls for establishing hotlines, shelters, medical
and forensic services, counseling, and legal aid services. It is designed to
help the estimated 25 percent of women in the European region who experience
physical or sexual abused in their lifetime.
As the most comprehensive legal means of fighting domestic violence in
Our advocacy gave teeth to many of the key provisions, designed to keep
women safe.
The convention, open to European countries as well as non-member states,
makes sure divorced women are protected, along with unmarried women in domestic
partnerships, and couples with religious marriages but no official
registration. These women make up a significant part of the population at risk
for domestic violence in some countries, or are excluded from some local
domestic violence laws.
From the start of the negotiations, we fought to ensure that asylum seekers
and migrant women would be protected. In many European countries, if a migrant
woman enters on her husband’s visa as a dependent, she risks losing her visa
and being deported if she reports her husband to the police. A decade of
research on migrant labor issues made us an important source of information on
this issue.
We also strove to ensure that the convention addressed all forms of
violence or threats of violence, including stalking and female genital
mutilation.
While the Council of Europe negotiations went forward in
A key to ramping up political pressure in support of the convention was the
report we released in May on family violence and the lack of protection for
women in
The media were still buzzing with news of our findings when the Council
members convened in
Hamiyet finally left her husband. She had a small apartment, but very
little money. Her husband stalked her, and the police were still no help. But
she had the support of her daughter, a nurse, who encouraged her to leave her
marriage. Hopefully, The Domestic Violence Convention will help her, showing
both mother and daughter that women can successfully seek help.