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Resolution 1635 (2008)
Combating violence against women: towards a Council of Europe convention
1. Domestic violence against women
is one of the most widespread violations of human rights in Europe. Domestic
violence affects all Council of Europe member states and all social
classes. According to available estimates, 80 million women throughout
Europe could be concerned by this scourge.
2. As underlined in its Recommendation
1847 (2008), the Parliamentary Assembly welcomes the campaign conducted
by the Council of Europe from 2006 to 2008 to combat violence against
women, including domestic violence, which for the first time involved
all three political dimensions of the Council of Europe (parliamentary,
governmental, local and regional), and associated non-governmental
organisations (NGOs). The Council of Europe campaign “Stop domestic
violence against women” helped to create greater awareness of the
phenomenon and acknowledgement of the fact that violence against
women, in particular domestic violence, is an unacceptable violation
of human rights.
3. The Assembly stresses the significant mobilisation and the
major contribution of the national parliaments of the Council of
Europe member states, and of those holding observer status with
the Parliamentary Assembly, in implementing the parliamentary dimension
of the campaign. For two years, some 40 national parliaments and
56 contact parliamentarians conducted more than 200 activities throughout
Europe to condemn domestic violence against women, raise awareness
among parliamentarians and the general public, amend the laws to
better protect victims, prosecute the perpetrators of domestic violence
and prevent this ill. The creation of a network of contact parliamentarians
under the aegis of the Assembly constituted an innovative working
method.
4. The Assembly is gratified by the co-operation developed during
the campaign with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the European Parliament
and the Nordic Council.
5. The Assembly nevertheless considers that action to combat
violence against women must be intensified. The Council of Europe,
as Europe’s human rights watchdog, should take a pioneering role
in this regard. The Assembly intends to remain mobilised and encourage
national parliaments to keep up their efforts in this direction.
6. The Assembly therefore invites the national parliaments to:
6.1. strengthen national legislation
on prevention of violence against women, in accordance with the Committee
of Ministers’ Recommendation Rec(2002)5 on the protection of women
against violence;
6.2. carry on adopting, and supervising the application of,
the seven landmark measures identified by the Assembly in paragraph
6.6 of Resolution 1582
(2007) and regarded as minimum standards, namely:
- “making domestic violence against women, including marital rape, a criminal offence;
- regarding violence perpetrated between (former) partners as an aggravating circumstance;
- setting up sufficient numbers of safe emergency shelters;
- making provision to remove violent spouses or partners and take out protection orders against perpetrators;
- guaranteeing effective access to the courts and to protection measures for victims;
- allocating sufficient budgetary resources for the implementation of the law;
- monitoring the application of laws on violence against women passed by parliament”;
6.3. support the preparation of a Council of Europe framework
convention on the severest and most widespread forms of violence
against women, in co-operation with the ministries concerned;
6.4. appoint, within their national delegations to the Assembly,
a contact parliamentarian responsible for keeping abreast of legislative
developments in the prevention of violence against women in his
or her country and reporting on this matter regularly to the Assembly;
6.5. continue the actions to raise the awareness of parliamentarians
and the general public, focusing especially on men’s involvement
in combating violence against women, in conjunction with governmental,
local and regional authorities and with NGOs;
6.6. organise on the occasion of each International Day for
the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November) an action
to raise awareness in parliament;
6.7. support the work of non-governmental organisations active
in combating violence against women.
7. The Assembly agrees to convene the network of contact parliamentarians
in 2009 in order to assess the legislative advances made and to
prepare the Assembly’s contribution to the drafting of a framework convention.
8. The Assembly invites the European Parliament and the Nordic
Council to maintain their co-operation with the Council of Europe.
9. The Assembly invites the Inter-Parliamentary Union to consider
joint actions in the context of the United Nations campaign to end
violence against women and girls (2008-15).