CoE member states call on Turkey to return to İstanbul Convention

More than 3,000 women are killed each year in Europe by their intimate partners or family members and countless more are hurt and harassed. The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, known as the İstanbul Convention, is the most far-reaching legal instrument to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence, as well as to ensure protection for victims and to bring perpetrators to justice.

The İstanbul Convention has had a documented positive effect on the lives of women, children, families and entire communities. The implementation of the Convention has improved legislation, support services, training of professionals and awareness raising, among other benefits. We call on all member States of the Council of Europe to ratify the Convention and benefit from its standards as well as from the tailor-made recommendations, scrutiny and support offered by GREVIO.

We deeply regret the decision of the President of Turkey to withdraw from the İstanbul Convention. The decision is difficult to understand as it jeopardizes the protection of women's rights in Turkey and sends a disturbing message to all women and men across Europe and beyond. On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Convention, and at a time of a pandemic when gender-based violence has risen significantly all over the world, this ambitious legal instrument to protect women and girls from violence is being willfully undermined by one of its first signatory States, who has even lent its name to the Convention. The denunciation of the Convention happened just as the world's women were gathering at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. In addition, it will mean Turkey withdrawing from the Convention on July 1st, during the Generation Equality Forum in Paris, the most important international conference for women's rights since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995.

Turkey's withdrawal constitutes a disappointing signal also from the point of view of our common rules-based multilateral order. We cherish the fact that international human rights instruments, such as the İstanbul Convention, help guarantee that all human rights, including women's rights, are vindicated. National measures alone do not reach the same level of protection.

We call on the Turkish Government to withdraw its notification of denunciation and renew its commitment to the İstanbul Convention. It is time to stop claiming that the Convention includes a hidden agenda. The İstanbul Convention does not set new standards in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation. Nor does it provide for the legal recognition of same-sex couples. The Convention does however provide excellent tools to combat gender-based stereotypes assodated with violence against women, and most importantly leaves it up to national legislation to define how this should be done. Governments have a legal obligation to protect the rights of LGBTI persons, including under the European Convention on Human Rights and according to the standards set by the Committee of Ministers, but not primarily under the İstanbul Convention.

This completely new situation, where the President of a member State of the Council of Europe has denounced a key Human Rights Convention, cannot remain unquestioned. We commend the statement of 21 March made by the German Chairmanship, the Secretary General and the President of the Parliamentary Assembly and ask the Secretary General and her staff to continue to be seized of the matter. We look forward to further detailed discussions, including about strengthened commitments to combat violence against women and domestic violence. Finally, we call on all signatories of the İstanbul Convention to accelerate steps towards its ratification in 2021.