United Nations

In 1979 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW has been ratified by 189 countries and includes appropriate measures and legislation that states should adopt to guarantee combatting discrimination against women. 

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) has issued several General Recommendations since then to oversee the implementation and evolution of CEDAW:

  • In 1989, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women released General recommendation No. 12 on Violence against Women stating that articles 2, 5, 11, 12 and 16 CEDAW require the States parties to act to protect women against violence of any kind occurring within the family, the workplace, or in any other area of social life. 
  • In 1992, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women released the General recommendation No. 19 on Violence against Women which incorporates violence against women into a framework of discrimination and human rights violations and measures to combat them. Both recommendations reiterate a state's responsibility to act with due diligence in eliminating violence against women.
  • General Recommendation No.19 was then updated by the Committee 25 years later through General Recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women, published in 2017. GR 35 emphasizes the role of gender stereotypes and gender inequality in causing gender-based violence, recognizes that intersectional characteristics may make some women more vulnerable to violence, and underlines the necessity of States to continue their commitment to combatting gender-based violence.

The United Nations World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993 and the Vienna Declaration and Programme for Action, presented gender-based violence as structural and universal. The Declaration also called for the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on violence against women and contributed to the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1993. 

The Declaration is the first international instrument that solely concerns violence against women. It defines violence against women (article 3) and it specifies that the measures to end violence against women shall target the structures, contexts, and social and cultural patterns which constitute the root causes of this type of violence (article 4 j). Finally, it establishes the relationship between intersecting inequalities and violence.

The Fourth UN World Conference on Women produced the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) which comprises a set of 12 critical areas for achieving women’s empowerment, including a commitment to combat violence against women, and was adopted by 189 Member States. Although the BPfA is not legally binding like CEDAW, it has a broader scope beyond discrimination against women, going further than only legal equality, such as eradicating poverty. 

The Beijing Declaration shows the universal and particular nature of violence against women. It also considers the fear of violence to be a permanent constraint on the mobility of women, limiting their access to resources and basic activities. Furthermore, the BPfA acknowledges additional barriers faced by women due to such factors as race, age, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability, etc.

Every five years, the Commission on the Status of Women reviews progress in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

EIGE’s report on BPfA +25, including an examination of progress on all 12 critical areas

EIGE's upcoming report on BPfA+30 

UN sustainable development goals

In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations Member States. The 2030 Agenda provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future, and is realized through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Goal 5 is to “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, which includes Target 5.2. “Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation”. EIGE’s data collection on IPV is a crucial tool to evaluate progress in this area.

The Council of Europe

The Council of Europe has been actively engaged in the development of policy and legislation targeting gender-based violence. The most relevant instruments to tackle violence against women are:

Together, they provide a comprehensive framework to prevent violence, to protect victims, and to end the impunity of perpetrators. 

The Istanbul Convention is legally binding regarding all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence. It recognises that domestic violence affects women disproportionately and Parties are encouraged to pay particular attention to women victims of gender-based violence. 

The Istanbul Convention applies in times of peace and armed conflict. It has been recognised as the most powerful legally binding set of comprehensive standards for preventing and combating violence against women in Europe and beyond. The Istanbul Convention entered into force on the 1st of August of 2014.  The EU signed the convention in 2017, and it entered into force on October 2023. 

How EIGE supports the Istanbul Convention

GREVIO, the body of independent experts responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Istanbul Convention, recently published General Recommendation No. 1 on the digital dimension of violence against women (2021). This recommendation seeks to clearly position manifestations of violence against women and girls in the digital sphere as a continuity of the different forms of gender-based violence against women covered by the Istanbul Convention. 

Cyberviolence against women is explicitly included in the new EU Directive 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence, and is one of the new frontiers in gender-based violence.

Database

Legal definitions of different types of gender-based violence used in EU Member States