Ukrainian President submits to Parliament bill on ratification of Istanbul Convention

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the draft law of Ukraine on ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence and the fight against these phenomena, known as the Istanbul Convention.

This is reported by the Presidential press service.

According to the press service, the bill provides for the ratification of the Istanbul Convention and the introduction of the international standards on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in the application of the law of Ukraine.

For Ukraine, the entry into force of this Convention will contribute to combating discrimination based on gender, will provide additional guarantees of the right to equality between men and women, will eliminate legal provisions that cause discrimination, and will improve civil protection of victims of violence.

The Convention must be ratified in accordance with Article 93 of the Constitution of Ukraine and Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine “On International Treaties of Ukraine.”

“We expected the ratification of the Istanbul Convention in July of this year. It should have been ratified long ago. Obviously, the President is preparing such a gift for a launch of the international two-week marathon of 16 days against violence, which traditionally begins on November 25. However, by ratifying the Istanbul Convention, it is important for the state to comply with the international document. This is a really important step, and it is the work of not a single day and a presidential signature,” commented Iryna Vyrtosu, the editor-in-chief of the Human Rights Information Centre and the coordinator of the awareness-raising campaign to combat violence “War which does not let go.”

As a reminder, according to the data of the National Police of Ukraine, more than 116,000 reports on the facts of violence in the family were registered only in 2015, and more than 78,000 administrative were drawn up.