ELDH – Appeal to European States – 25th November 2016, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
The European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH) calls upon European states to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention), if they have not done so yet.
The Istanbul Convention was opened for signature on 11 May 2011, and came into force, after 10 ratifications, on 1 August 2014.
However, to date, of 47 states of the Council of Europe, only 22 states have signed and ratified the Convention. The 22 states which have ratified, are: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. 20 states including, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Switzerland, and the UK have signed but have not yet ratified. 5 states including Azerbaijan, and Russia have not even signed.