Yes to the Istanbul Convention in the EU – CP from the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union — June 1, 2023

On Thursday, the Council decided that the EU would accede to the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, known as the Istanbul Convention. Bringing this issue to a successful conclusion has been a priority for Sweden during its presidency of the EU Council of Ministers.

Sweden’s Minister for Gender Equality welcomes the decision:

“The Istanbul Convention is the most progressive and comprehensive convention on preventing and combating violence against women, violence committed by relatives and violence and oppression committed in the name of honor. I am proud that the Swedish Presidency led the Council of Ministers to this important decision,” says Paulina Brandberg, Minister for Gender Equality and Deputy Minister for Employment.

The Istanbul Convention is the first legally binding convention on violence against women in Europe. It has set a new, high-level international standard in the field, and contains among other things provisions on the prevention of violence, swift and proper prosecution, and the obligation to provide shelters for victims, particularly women and their children. The Convention also states that violence against women is an expression of historically unequal power relations between men and women.

The Convention was adopted in 2011 and came into force in 2014. The question of EU accession to the Convention has been discussed within the Council for many years. The process took time, as several EU member states were opposed to accession. After the Court of Justice of the European Union presented its opinion on accession in autumn 2021, negotiations were completed.

The Council has now decided that the EU will join the Convention, after the European Parliament gave the go-ahead for approval of the decision last May.