Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion, by the European Union, of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence

The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence was adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 7 April 2011 and opened for signature on 11 May 2011.

The Convention was negotiated in the course of nine meetings of a specific Ad-Hoc Committee that met between December 2009 and December 2010. The European Union participated, alongside Member States, as an observer in these meetings. Following the tenth ratification by a member State of the Council of Europe, the Convention came into force on 1 August 2014. As of 1 February 2016, twelve EU Member States have ratified the Convention, and twenty-five Member States have signed it.

The EU is strongly committed to combating violence not only within its borders, but also as part of its international initiatives. The EU has taken firm positions on the need to eradicate violence against women and is funding specific campaigns and grass-roots projects to combat it.

The Convention’s approach is fully in line with the Union’s multifaceted approach to the phenomenon of gender-based violence and the thrust of measures in place through internal and external EU policies. The conclusion of the Convention would send a strong political message about the EU’s commitment to combating violence against women, create coherence between its internal and external action, as well as complementarity between national and EU levels, and reinforce its credibility and accountability towards its international partners. It would also consolidate the EU’s action targeting violence against women by achieving a more coordinated approach internally and giving it a more effective role in international fora.

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)109: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2016:109:FIN

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)111: Proposal for a Council Decision on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2016:111:FIN

European Commission: Press Release, 04.03.16: Commission proposes EU accession to international Convention to fight violence against women http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-549_en.htm

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