Motion for a recommendation | Doc. 13496 | 11 April 2014

The creation of a European observatory on violence against women

Signatories: Ms Maria Edera SPADONI, Italy, NR ; Ms Najat AL-ASTAL, Palestine ; Ms Ingrid ANTIČEVIĆ MARINOVIĆ, Croatia, SOC ; Ms Deborah BERGAMINI, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Robert BIEDROŃ, Poland, SOC ; Ms Nunzia CATALFO, Italy, NR ; Ms Elena CENTEMERO, Italy, EPP/CD ; Ms Celeste COSTANTINO, Italy, SOC ; Ms Pascale CROZON, France, SOC ; Mr Manlio DI STEFANO, Italy, NR ; Ms Béatrice FRESKO-ROLFO, Monaco, EPP/CD ; Mr Giuseppe GALATI, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Francesco Maria GIRO, Italy, EPP/CD ; Ms Snežana JONICA, Montenegro, SOC ; Ms Guguli MAGRADZE, Georgia, SOC ; Ms Pirkko MATTILA, Finland, NR ; Ms Mechthild RAWERT, Germany, SOC ; Ms Milena SANTERINI, Italy, NR ; Mr Kimmo SASI, Finland, EPP/CD ; Mr Andreas SCHIEDER, Austria, SOC ; Ms Gisela WURM, Austria, SOC

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

Violence against women is a particularly common phenomenon in all the member States of the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe has therefore given great importance to this issue for many years, and has opened for signature and ratification the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

The Convention will enter into force after ten ratifications which are likely to be achieved in 2014, thanks to the efforts of the Parliamentary Assembly through its Parliamentary Network “Women Free from Violence”.

The real challenge, however, will consist in the effective application and monitoring of the Convention, which presupposes the existence of accurate and reliable data.

For this reason, in Italy, in the law no. 119/13 of October 15, 2013, clauses of the extraordinary Action Plan to combat violence against women also include the provision of a structured collection of the phenomenon’s data, which is updated periodically, at least annually, including through the co-ordination of the already existing databases.

The same Istanbul Convention requires member States to collect statistical data on a national level. However, on a European level, the creation of a single database for the 47 member States drawing from comparable national data would allow more detailed knowledge and a better evaluation of the policies implemented.

Therefore, the Assembly should recommend to the Committee of Ministers that it adopts a recommendation on collecting data on violence against women, in order to study the feasibility of the creation of a European observatory on violence against women and to encourage the ratification of the Istanbul Convention.