[Brussels, 21 December 2014] The
Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) is an internationally recognised, visionary treaty with great potential to become an effective tool for ending violence against women and girls. This new Council of Europe Convention is an extremely important step towards equality between women and men, and considering this, we believe the process of monitoring this Convention should be transparent, and take into account the views of NGOs and experts with full understanding and knowledge on violence against women.
The Convention’s monitoring mechanism will be key to guarantee that it realises this potential.
To ensure an effective monitoring mechanism, civil society and particularly women’s NGOs will play an important role at several levels:
1. Advocating among States Parties to the Convention for the nomination of strong candidates to the “Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence” (GREVIO);
2. Active contributions to the monitoring process (through, for example, shadow reports to GREVIO);
3. Advocating for a meaningful application of the new mechanism to involve national parliaments in the evaluation and monitoring (as described in Article 70 of the Convention).
Find the Lobbying Kit here.
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