MEPs supported the accession of the European Union to the Istanbul Convention

Deputies of the European Parliament voted for the accession of the European Union to the Convention of the Council of Europe on preventing and combating violence against women, or the Istanbul Convention. The EU Council must now complete the process.

The press service of the European Parliament writes about it.

If the EU finally joins the convention, the member states will still have to ratify it independently. So far, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic have not done this.

The European Union signed the Istanbul Convention in 2017, but then some countries said that ratification of the document at the level of the bloc is possible only with unanimous consent. The EU court denied this statement, clarifying that the union can join the convention in matters of asylum, judicial cooperation in criminal cases and obligations of institutions and state administration bodies.

• The Convention refers to two types of violence: against women and domestic violence. The first includes any physical, psychological, economic or sexual violence, harassment or harassment, particularly at work. Domestic violence is anything that occurs between partners or members of the same family without the consent of either partner (eg forced sex, marriage, abortion, circumcision, sterilization). Perpetrators will be held criminally responsible for any type of violence. The punishment will be more severe if the victims are relatives or partners or if a child witnessed the violence. The Istanbul Convention is the first international document that legally defines violence against women and establishes measures to prevent violence, punish perpetrators and support victims.
• In July 2022 , Ukraine completed the ratification of the Istanbul Convention and became the 36th state to do so.