Soraya Rodriguez demands that the European Council ratify the Istanbul Convention and that the most reactionary countries do not set the equality agenda. “We have been waiting for the ratification of the Istanbul Convention for six years. When 50 women are killed in the Union every week, it is a real tragedy. It is unacceptable.”
MEP and spokeswoman for Women in the European Parliament, Soraya Rodríguez, has called on the European Council to ratify the Istanbul Convention against gender-based violence as soon as possible and to prevent the most reactionary EU countries from marking the EU’s equality agenda.
“We have been waiting for six years for the Council to ratify the Istanbul Convention so that the European Union can also be a part of it. Six years are, without any doubt, too many years to wait. When 50 women are killed every week in the European Union, it is a real tragedy. It is unacceptable. First, the Council told us that there were legal problems, that unanimity was needed. This allowed that during six years the most reactionary countries on gender equality, such as Poland — that announced three years ago the withdrawal of its signature from the Convention — or Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia — which have not yet ratified it — to set the political agenda of all, including the one of Parliament and of the Commission. Now, after the ruling of 6 October 2021, when we know according to the Court of Justice that there are no legal constraints, that the Convention can be ratified by the Council with a qualified majority, it is time to do so. We owe it to all the victims of gender-based violence in the European Union. To them, to their families, to the orphans without a mother, victims of this brutal violence against women."
Following the debate, Parliament’s final report on the EU’s accession to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence was adopted at the plenary session last February.
Report of the European Parliament of 15 February 2023 on the proposal for a Council decision on the conclusion, by the European Union, of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (COM(2016)0109 – 2016/0062R (NLE))
