23 DE NOVEMBRO DE 2013

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The golden standard

We are here to discuss new standards on how to fight violence against women. The Istanbul Convention is

the obvious reference. Earlier this year, , Ms Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Head of UN Women, defined the Istanbul

Convention as “the golden standard” in the field of fighting violence against women.

She was right. And we need to keep her words in mind. The Convention offers a set of golden rules and

measures that can be applied in a variety of countries. The status of women varies greatly between those

states which have signed the Convention. However, even though it is in different ways, they all share the

scourge of gender-based and domestic violence. They can all benefit from respecting the obligations the

guidelines set out in this text and the concrete measures that it indicates.

Let me underline another very important point. The Convention sets high standards and some of its

principles are entirely new to our countries’ legal systems. However, these standards are a minimum threshold.

Nothing prevents States from going even further. On the contrary, States parties are encouraged to widen the

scope of the norms, as I will explain to you in more detail.

For this reason, and because we find ourselves here today in a national Parliament and many of us are

parliamentarians, I will present the Istanbul Convention to you as it currently stands, but also how national

legislators can improve its measures while enforcing it.

The Istanbul Convention is a ground-breaking instrument for a number of reasons:

- It is based on 4 Ps.

We already know the first 3Ps from previous conventions:

- Preventing violence

- Protecting the victims

- Persecuting the perpetrators

But there is also a 4th P, standing for “policies”:

Integratedpolicies to counter violence against women, bringing together all the possible actors: public

authorities at national, regional and local level, civil society, as well as national human rights institutions. This

means that Ministries, state agencies and NGOs should not act alone but work out protocols for cooperation.

Violence against women and domestic violence must be tackled in a co-ordinated way. This is an expression of

the holistic approach on which the Convention is based;

— the Istanbul Convention recognizes violence against women as a violation of human rights and a form of

discrimination;

— it is the first international treaty to contain a definition of gender, which refers to “the socially constructed

roles, behaviors, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men”. This

means that it is now recognized that women and men are not only biologically female or male, but that there is

also a socially constructed category of gender that assigns women and men their particular roles and

behaviors;

— it introduces a set of criminal offences such as female genital mutilation, forced marriage, psychological

violence, stalking, sexual harassment, sexual violence including rape, forced abortion and forced sterilization.

This means that states will have to define offences for these acts where they do not currently exist in their legal

systems.