Violence against Women and Domestic Violence according to The Istanbul Convention

The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence was done in Istanbul, May 11th 2011.  The Convention, known as the Istanbul Convention, came into force on 1 August 2014, and has been ratified to date by 37 countries plus the EU. It names two variants of violence: violence against women and domestic violence.

Article 3 of the Istanbul Convention

"For the purpose of this Convention:

a “violence against women” is understood as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women and shall mean all acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life;

b “domestic violence” shall mean all acts of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence that occur within the family or domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the victim;

c “gender” shall mean the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men;

d “gender-based violence against women” shall mean violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately;

e “victim” shall mean any natural person who is subject to the conduct specified in points a and b;

f “women” includes girls under the age of 18"

Link to the full convention https://rm.coe.int/168008482e>