30 DE NOVEMBRO DE 2013

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1. For the purpose of the implementation of this Convention, Parties shall undertake to:

a. collect disaggregated relevant statistical data at regular intervals on cases of all forms of violence covered

by the scope of this Convention;

b. support research in the field of all forms of violence covered by the scope of this Convention in order to

study its root causes and effects, incidences and conviction rates, as well as the efficacy of measures taken to

implement this Convention.

2. Parties shall endeavour to conduct population-based surveys at regular

intervals to assess the prevalence of and trends in all forms of violence covered

by the scope of this Convention.

3. Parties shall provide the group of experts, as referred to in Article 66 of this Convention, with the

information collected pursuant to this article in order to stimulate international co-operation and enable

international benchmarking.

4. Parties shall ensure that the information collected pursuant to this article is available to the public.”

18. In my opinion, the Council of Europe should explore the feasibility of playing a role in the area of data

collection, in two ways:

elaborating common guidelines on data collection, to be recommended to all Council of Europe

member States, in order to facilitate harmonisation and comparability;

co-operating with the European Union, in particular FRA, with a view to conducting a survey on

violence against women for all the Council of Europe member States which are not covered by the forthcoming

FRA report. In this way, the two studies would be fully complementary and provide a reliable picture of the

situation in the whole of Europe.

19. A final point: figures and data, however reliable, should always be interpreted and put in context. For

instance, just a few weeks ago data released in the United Kingdom indicated a 13% drop in cases of domestic

violence being referred by the police for prosecution. Unfortunately, as has been pointed out by NGOs

and some politicians, this figure hides a failure of the system because the number of complaints presented to

the police has actually gone up by 10%.

4. Challenges posed by the economic context

20. The debate in the United Kingdom leads me to raise another important consideration, which applies

equally to all member States: women victims of violence should not be kept hostage of the economic crisis and

the ensuing budgetary cuts.

21. One of the main explanations for the 13% drop in referrals in the United Kingdom is a 20% cut in funding

for the police. This led to job cuts in the police and reduced its capacity to investigate criminal cases and bring

them to court.

22. Similar fears have been raised in a number of member States as regards the availability of shelters and

assistance measures, which are threatened by horizontal cuts, as well as access to free legal aid for victims of

violence, which is also being reduced.

23. I believe that these are new challenges confronting those who are engaged in combating violence

against women, in particular legislators who have to weigh the pressure to reduce expenditures and the need to

ensure effective protection and assistance for women who are victims of violence. As violence against women

is a human rights issue, I have no hesitation in recommending that it is given high priority.

5. 2013: a turning point

24. Despite the challenges posed by the economic crisis, 2013 has been a milestone year in the fight

against violence against women. The choice of “violence against women and girls” as the main theme of the