The Ukrainian Parliament supported the ratification of the Istanbul Convention on the Prevention of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.
Rada voted with 259 votes in favor of the decision, said an MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
Countries that have acceded to the convention must criminalize psychological, physical and sexual violence, harassment, as well as forced abortions, sterilization and marriage.
- On January 27 this year, a public petition calling on President Volodymyr Zelensky to introduce a bill ratifying the Istanbul Convention against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence received the required 25,000 signatures.
- The Convention deals with two types of violence: against women and domestic violence. The first includes any physical, psychological, economic or sexual violence, as well as harassment, particularly at work. Domestic violence is anything that happens between partners or members of the same family without the consent of one of them (for example, coercion into sex, marriage, abortion, circumcision, sterilization). Offenders will be held criminally liable for any form of violence. Punishment will be harsher if the victims are relatives or partners or if the act of violence was witnessed by a child.
- The document was signed by 46 countries and the European Union. However, 11 more countries, including Ukraine, have not ratified the agreement. Ukraine signed the Istanbul Convention in 2011, but has not yet ratified it due to protests by churches and conservative politicians against its use of the term "gender".