Over 110 Members of the European Parliament pressured the European Union to recognise the Istanbul Convention on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence on Friday, and to make violence against women a crime.
The Istanbul Convention is the worldâs first joint binding effort to fight and prevent violence against women, ranging from marital rape to domestic violence and female genital mutilation. The convention was initiated by the Council of Europe in 2011.
In total, 118 MEPs signed an open letter addressed to the Presidents of the European Commission (Ursula von der Leyen) and the European Council (Charles Michel). The letter was initiated by MEPs Milan Brglez and Predrag Fred Matic.
âIf 1 in 5 women have already suffered physical or sexual violence in the European Union and 55% of women have been sexually harassed, this is clearly not a womenâs issue.â
MEPs propose to add âviolence against women to the list of EU crimesâ and to focus âon eliminating gender-based violenceâ.
Ratification of the convention could be a âmoment of historic prominenceâ in the âfight against gender-based violence in the EUâ, the MEPs write.
If the Istanbul Convention is ratified, its contents will be made legally binding for all Member States.
âWe encourage a unified approach by the Commission and the Council in addressing violence against women with the concrete aim of ratification of the Istanbul Convention by the #EU,â Brglez tweeted.
1/2 S @fred_matic sva v pismu @vonderleyen @eucopresident spodbudila k enotnemu pristopu Komisije in Sveta pri naslavljanju nasilja nad ĆŸenskami s konkretnim ciljem ratifikacije Istanbulske konvencije s strani #EU. pic.twitter.com/pLlWu7yIuL
â Milan Brglez (@milan_brglez) October 16, 2020
In July, Poland announced that it would move to withdraw from the convention, calling it âharmfulâ. Instead, Warsaw will look to replace the convention with a âFamily Rightsâ-treaty.
The treaty has been criticised for seeking to âboost the rights of âtraditional familiesâ at the expense of sexual minoritiesâ and womenâs rights.
Amée Zoutberg
The Brussels Times