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Reply to Recommendation | Doc. 13504 | 23 April 2014
Violence against women in Europe
1. The Committee of Ministers has taken
note with interest of Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 2030
(2013) on “Violence against women in Europe”.
2. The Committee of Ministers attaches great importance to this
issue and devoted its most recent thematic debate to “Violence against
women (co-operation, particularly in the context of the Istanbul
Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and
Domestic Violence)”. On that occasion, the General Rapporteur of
the Parliamentary Assembly on Violence against Women, as well as
representatives of an INGO and of the European Court of Human Rights
were invited to take part in the debate.
3. Like the Assembly, the Committee of Ministers would like to
see the prompt entry into force of the Council of Europe Convention
on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic
Violence (Istanbul Convention, CETS No. 210). It welcomes the Assembly’s
efforts in this respect and emphasises that parliamentarians can
make a major contribution to promoting ratification of the convention
by the member States and, subsequently, to its implementation at
national level and the monitoring of its application.
4. With regard to the Assembly’s specific recommendations, the
Committee of Ministers would point out that the Council of Europe
has played a pioneering role in the collection of data on violence
against women, initially through the provisions of Recommendation
Rec(2002)5 on the protection of women against violence, then by
including legally binding rules which call specifically for action
to this effect in Article 11 of the Istanbul Convention. As a result,
once the Istanbul Convention has entered into force, the Group of
Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence
(GREVIO) and the Committee of the Parties will base their follow-up
on data collected from the States Parties, which will add to the
knowledge about national responses to violence against women.
5. Furthermore, in the area of data collection on violence against
women, the Council of Europe is already co-operating with other
regional and international organisations, particularly the United
Nations, including the World Health Organisation, the European Union
and its agencies, such as the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European
Union (FRA) and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).
6. As to the Assembly’s recommendations that the Committee of
Ministers should contribute to strengthening the national legal
and policy framework in the area of violence against women by conducting
a series of specific activities, the Committee of Ministers points
out that these activities already form part of the Gender Equality
Strategy 2014-2017.
7. In this context, the Council of Europe provides, at the member
States’ request and as appropriate, legal advice and expertise on
draft legislation to combat violence against women, together with
support for the organisation of training for relevant professionals.
It has, in particular, provided targeted support for strategies and
policies in the southern Mediterranean countries in the framework
of the Council of Europe’s policy towards its immediate neighbourhood
and under the project “Combating violence against women and domestic violence,
including against children, in the South Mediterranean Region by
ensuring respect for human rights and by implementing international
standards”, financed by the Norwegian Government.
8. As to the Assembly’s recommendation to ensure that the Assembly
itself is represented on GREVIO as an observer and invited to attend
the meetings of the Committee of the Parties, the Committee of Ministers would
point out that, under Article 70, paragraph 3, of the Istanbul Convention,
“the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe shall be invited
to regularly take stock of the implementation of this convention”.
This provision will enable the Assembly to play an active part in
the implementation of the convention, in accordance with arrangements
to be determined by the Assembly itself in agreement with the two
bodies concerned, such as regular exchanges of information with
GREVIO on its evaluation reports and on the action taken on the Committee
of the Parties’ recommendations.