Campaign to combat domestic violence against women in Europe

Doc. 10456

14 February 2005

Campaign to combat domestic violence against women in Europe

Recommendation 1681 (2004)

Reply from the Committee of Ministers

adopted at the 913^th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (2 February 2005)

1. The Committee of Ministers has carefully studied Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1681 (2004) on the campaign to combat domestic violence against women in Europe and forwarded it to the governments of the member states, as well as to the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG), whose opinion is appended hereto, to the European Committee for Social Cohesion (CDCS) and to the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC).

2. The Committee of Ministers endorses the Assembly’s concerns about the extent and escalation of domestic violence against women in the Council of Europe member states. It thanks the Assembly for its proposals, which could form the basis for new practical and coordinated activities for combating domestic violence at European level.

3. Combating violence against women and all forms of sexual exploitation of women has been a key area of work for the Organisation since the Second Summit of the Council of Europe in October 1997. In this connection, the Committee of Ministers refers to the reply given in May 2003 to Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1582 (2002), which outlined the activities undertaken to contribute towards achieving that aim.

4. The Committee of Ministers draws particular attention to the Final Declaration of the 5th European Ministerial Conference on Equality between Women and Men (Skopje, 22-23 January 2003), which makes preventing and combating violence against women and trafficking in human beings one of the three main objectives of the Council of Europe’s activities for the protection and promotion of women’s fundamental rights, and to the decision taken by the Ministers on that occasion to develop Council of Europe norms and standards in this field and monitor their implementation.

5. With this aim in view, the Committee of Ministers undertook, through the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men, the preparation of a framework for monitoring the practical implementation of Recommendation Rec(2002)5 on the protection of women against violence and an analytical study on the protection of women against violence in the Council of Europe member states, which contains information on national action plans for combating violence against women.

6. As part of the implementation of the Council of Europe’s anti-terrorism and general victim protection activities, it also recently set up a Group of Specialists on assistance to victims and prevention of victimisation, coming under the authority of the CDPC and responsible for preparing a draft recommendation setting out appropriate standards and principles in the field of general assistance and services to victims. Assembly Recommendation 1681 (2004) will be brought to this Group’s attention so that it can be taken into account in its work.

7. Under the Integrated Project on “Responses to violence in everyday life in a democratic society”, which ended in December 2004, particular attention was paid to the gender dimension in all areas of violence in everyday life, and particularly urban violence, violence at school and domestic violence. A document summarising and commenting on all the instruments, conventions and recommendations relating to the prevention of violence against women has been published (“Preventing violence against women: a European perspective”, Council of Europe Publishing 2003). Guidelines have also been drawn up for combating male domestic violence (“Working against men’s domestic violence: priority policies and practices for men in intervention, prevention and societal change” – document IP2(2004)32). Lastly, a set of general guidelines for national policies on the prevention of everyday violence was adopted at the ad hoc Conference of European Ministers responsible for the Prevention of Violence (Oslo, 7-9 November 2004). These general principles are of course also intended to apply in the specific field of violence against women.

8. The Assembly will note, in the light of the above, that the Committee of Ministers is fully aware of the seriousness and topicality of the phenomenon of domestic violence and that it therefore recognises the usefulness of addressing this issue in the context of the Council of Europe’s Third Summit of Heads of State and Government.

Appendix to the reply

Campaign to combat domestic violence against women in Europe –
Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1681 (2004)

Comments of the Steering Committee for Equality between Women Men (CDEG)

The CDEG welcomed the Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1681 (2004) on the campaign to combat domestic violence against women in Europe and shared the concerns of the Assembly on the extent and escalation of violence against women in Council of Europe member states. The CDEG recalled its previous opinion on Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1582 (2002) on domestic violence against women.

The CDEG agreed with the Parliamentary Assembly that the Third Summit of the Council of Europe should deal with the issue of domestic violence. In this respect the CDEG pointed out that in the Final Declaration of the Second Summit of the Council of Europe (10-11 October 1997), the Heads of State and Government affirmed their “determination to combat violence against women and all forms of sexual exploitation of women”. In this context, it was also underlined that the 3rd European Ministerial Conference on Equality between Women and Men (Rome, 21-22 October 1993) was devoted specifically to this theme and the Ministers strongly condemned all forms of violence against women as violations of human rights. Furthermore, the 5th European Ministerial Conference between Women and Men (Skopje, 22-23 January 2003), in its final declaration, agreed that preventing and combating violence against women and trafficking in human beings should be one of the three main focuses of the activities of the Council of Europe to protect and promote the human rights of women and agreed to develop Council of Europe norms and standards in these fields and monitor their implementation.

The CDEG underlined that the provisions of Recommendation Rec(2002)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the protection of women against violence advocate a number of practical and legislative measures for prevention, protection of and assistance to victims, prosecution, awareness raising and vocational training programmes. The Recommendation also includes additional measures with regard to violence within the family and intervention programmes for the perpetrators of violence. Furthermore, the CDEG is currently preparing a monitoring framework based on indicators to follow up the concrete implementation of the Recommendation as well as an analytical study on the protection of women against violence in the member states of the Council of Europe, which includes information on national plans of action to combat violence against women.