European Parliament majority in favour of stricter punishment for violence against women

STRASBOURG: The European Parliament (EP) on Thursday adopted a non-binding resolution to prevent violence against women (VAW) — called the Istanbul Convention — following a meeting here in the French city.

Thousands of women around the world have been victim to domestic and other forms of violence. The Istanbul Convention — or the Council of Europe Convention — is a fundamental international document to prevent VAW and provides legal tools to fight against such brutalities and protect women and girls.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted in large majority — 500 votes — to adopt the Istanbul Convention and declare violence against women a crime with stricter, severer punishment.

The EP also reiterated its position in favour of specifically earmarking €193.6 million for efforts to prevent and combat gender-based violence (GBV) in the Rights and Values programme.

The EP, however, urged seven member states — including Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, and the UK — that have signed the Istanbul Convention but not ratified it yet to do so without any further delay.

Adopted by the Council of Europe in 2011, the Istanbul Convention entered into force in 2014 and was signed by the European Union in June 2017. It is the first international instrument of its kind, indicating that states that ratify it must follow comprehensive, legally-binding standards to prevent GBV, protect victims, and punish the perpetrators.

The MEPs condemned the attacks and campaigns against the Istanbul Convention in some countries, which, according to them, were based on deliberately misinterpreting and falsely presenting its contents to the public.

They requested that the Commission add combating GBV as a priority in the next European Gender Strategy meeting. It was absolutely necessary for all the member states to ensure that the Istanbul Convention was properly implemented and enforced by allocating adequate funding and human resources to the right services.

Providing appropriate training for professionals who deal with victims and survivors — and include but were not limited to magistrates, doctors, and police officers — was particularly essential, they added.

Last week, women and men in Europe took to the streets in major capitals to exert pressure on the legislators to ratify the Istanbul Convention, to which the EP responded with a positive message.

According to a 2014 Fundamental Rights Agency survey, one of every three women in the EU had experienced physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15, while 55 percent had experienced one or more forms of sexual harassment. Of that, 11 percent had been subjected to cyber harassment and one in every 20 was sexually assaulted.

After the EP vote, Geo News spoke with some of the MEPs who were in attendance during the meeting's proceedings on the Istanbul Convention's adoption.

Speaking to Geo.tv, MEP Katrin Langensiepen, also a member of the Greens/European Free Alliance, said: "Countries that have not signed the Istanbul Convention […] have to learn about it. Me as a new women MEP with disabilities will continue to fight for the rights of women and girls in European Union and outside Europe."

The Liberal International (LI) Human Rights Committee's vice chairperson and a member of the Renew Europe Group, MEP Phil Bennion, termed it a "shame [how] Britain doesn't sign the Istanbul Convention".

The UK government has been reluctant to decide for years about such international conventions, he added, noting that these conventions were a "necessity for progressive societies".

The new chair of the EP's South Asia Delegation, Conservative MEP Baroness Nosheena Mobarik, noted: "Daily violence against women just been overlooked, women basically controlled by other.

"This can’t be allowed to persist."

On the other hand, Renew Europe Group member, MEP Dinesh Dhamija, said: "I am absolutely astonished that in the UK we are not signing the convention."

Maria Arena — a socialist member of the European Parliament (EP) and the chair of its Subcommittee on Human Rights — told Geo.tv that she thought it was very important to go to action after the ratification.

"Many countries ratified the convention but do nothing about it. We need to implement we have pledged," Arena explained, while MEP Caroline Voaden stated that it was "an absolute disgrace that the Conservative government has still not brought the Istanbul convention into law".

She added: "It was signed while the Lib Dems were in government, but the Tories clearly have no interest in implementing it. Britain wants to protect its women, the Conservative government does not.

"Women deserve better. We must do everything we can to end violence against women.'