6 | - Número: 004 | 1 de Novembro de 2014

The Network has organized dozens of conferences and auditions on different subjects covered by the Convention. This work has been instrumental to catalyze political support for the Istanbul Convention, and that without the lobbying, pressure and networking of our parliamentarians nowadays we would not have achieved the entry into force of our precious gold standard. However, 15 ratifications out of 47 Council of Europe member States means there is still a lot of work to be done.

How to amplify impact

Some months ago, the Agency for Fundamental Rights published the most comprehensive survey on violence against women ever carried out in the European Union. 42.000 women were personally interviewed.
The survey indicates that:

- 33% of women where physically or sexually aggressed at least once in a lifetime, and 28% of them since the age of 15, and 22% of them have experienced this kind of violence from their partner; - 7 per cent have experienced physical violence in the course of the 12 months before the survey. This means 13 MILLION WOMEN in total; - 5% of women declares having been raped; - 20% of women declares having been victims of stalking; - 43% of women were victims of psychological violence.

And, as if this were not disturbing enough, set against these alarming figures, there is A VERY LOW CONVICTION RATE.
But, what is more frightening, is that only 1/3 of the victims at the hands of their partners have denounced the violence they suffered, and only ¼ of the victims at the hands of nom partners did it.
This means that the statistics we know up to now, are useless. Reality is much worst then we thought!

How, when and why I became involved

I became deeply involved on the issue of gender equality and combating violence against women in the year 2006, at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, by the occasion of the great campaign against the trafficking of women to be forced to prostitution at the doors of the stadiums, during the FIFA World Football Championship in Germany.
Since then I have made all the reports of PACE related to the Convention, and was the author of the Resolution that, in 2008, proposed to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe the drafting and approval of a Convention on the issue.
I have participated on the drafting of the Convention, made the final report, and have been promoting the signature and ratification of this binding international instrument all along the last three years. Finally, last 1st of August, it entered into force, 15 ratifications already on the list, and 21 more are on the way.
This became my faith: the need to achieve gender equality and to end violence against women in all its forms.
This has become my main mission as a politician and a legislator, as well as a man. All too often, men are just spectators of women’s battle to achieve gender equality. This is wrong. The battle of gender equality can be won only if men and women fight it together; furthermore, this is a battle for the benefit of all, not only women but also men.