Regional forum on the implementation of the Istanbul Convention in the Western Balkans and Turkey

November 30, 2018

[Brussels, November 30 2018] On November 28-29th, the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) participated in the Regional Forum Integrated Polices, Inclusive Partnerships, in partnership with UN Women, the Council of Europe, the European Union and the government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in Skopje. The Regional Forum is part of the three-year UN Women Programme “Ending violence against women: Implementing norms, Changing minds” which aims to end gender-based discrimination and violence against women (VAW) in the region of the Western Balkans and Turkey. The project encompasses the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYR Macedonia), Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey.

Regional Forum on Istanbul Convention in Western Balkans and Turkey

Participants of the forum included representatives from government institutions, regional institutions and women’s civil society from across the Western Balkans and Turkey. Participants took the opportunity to discuss the progress in implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, the Istanbul Convention, highlighting the achievements and challenges that remain in combating this most pervasive violation of women’s human rights. The EWL participated in the forum in the capacity of project implementation partners where we presented the key findings of our mapping analysis, Regional Analysis of Policies and Legislation on Violence against Women and the Istanbul Convention in the Western Balkans and Turkey which you can download and find more information here. We also present you 7 country reports detailing the achievements and challenges, as well as good practices and lessons learned in each of the participating countries. Each country report contains recommendations for improvement in prevention, policies, protection and prosecution of male violence against women. You can find them here:

EWL Observatory on Violence against Women Expert and Project Manager Valentina Andrašek also took the opportunity to present the perspective of women’s civil society organisations on challenges regarding sustainable funding, multi-stakeholder protocols on responding to cases of violence against women and the reality of the attacks sustained by civil society organisations.

EWL Observatory Expert Valentina Andrasek

To find out more about the achievements and challenges in the implementation of the Istanbul Convention and The UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in the Western Balkans and Turkey; the recommendations of women’s civil society in the region of how to combat the issue; and our recommendations on developing sustainable mechanisms of collaborations please read our in depth country-by-country analyses which you can find below. The EWL would like to thank the research consultants who dedicated their time and expertise in developing these reports over the last year; VALENTINA ANDRASEK (Regional Mapping & Methodology), KYLE DELBYCK (Bosnia & Herzegovina), SAŠA GAVRIĆ (Kosovo), MEGI LLUBANI (Albania), BILJANA NASTOVSKA (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), MARIJA PETRONIJEVIĆ (Serbia), MAJA RAIČEVIĆ (Montenegro), AYSE SARGIN (Turkey) Photos by UN Women.