Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced that the Istanbul Convention, which aims to prevent violence against women, will be fully implemented in Germany and invited other European Union countries to ratify the convention.
The Istanbul Convention (IC), drafted in 2011 by 46 member states of the Council of Europe, is applicable law for all states that have signed and ratified it. As of today, 36 of the 46 signatory states have ratified the IC and in the meantime countries have withdrawn again, such as Turkey in the summer of 2021.
The European Union is still not among the signatories, as fundamentalist conservative states keep blocking the signing of the Istanbul Convention.
The Convention has been a federal law in Germany since 2018 and was welcomed by civil society and politics as a significant milestone in the fight against violence against women. Although there have been some positive developments in German legislation since ratification of the IC, implementation of the convention has remained generally poor.
The reservations against Article 44 and Article 59 paragraphs 2 & 3 are finally dropped at federal level. Especially Article 59 for a marriage-independent right of residence was and still is enormously important for many migrant women who came and come to Germany in the course of family reunification. It is this article that gives them a right of residence independent of marriage and thus, at least formally, offers access to comprehensive protection. Practice will show what that will look like in concrete terms, what steps the Federal Government will take to provide comprehensive protection for all women.
“The real work begins from now on”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced that the Istanbul Convention will be fully implemented in Germany starting from this month and also invited other European Union (EU) countries to ratify the convention.
“If the reservations are dropped now, then the real work begins. From now on we have to see which laws we have to change and where the state still has to drop barriers and restrictions, as required by the Istanbul Convention – in order to effectively stop any form of violence against ALL women!”, according to Dr. Delal Atmaca, Managing Director of DaMigra eV and Alliance Councilor of the Istanbul Convention Alliance.
Source: DaMigra