During #ConventionAsPresent event deputies were asked to give everyone protection from violence (photo)

Today, under committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine about 30 activists conducted a campaign titled #ConventionAsPresent (#КонвенціяУПодарунок) with intention to compel the deputies to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing domestic violence, which is also known as the Istanbul Convention of the Council of Europe, as soon as possible.

As reported by the correspondent of the Human Rights Information Centre.

Similar campaigns are also conducted today in Zaporizhia, Dnipro, Cherkasy, Odessa and Kharkiv.

The initiators of the campaign are the Human Rights Information Centre and the Amnesty International Ukraine.

In Kyiv during the performance participants of the campaign among which are women, men, in particular, people with disabilities, rejected the traditional gifts of Valentine’s Day and asked to give them Istanbul Convention.

“Today deputies must work in the committees of the VR and, on February 16, here in the committees, before the second reading, they should consider a government bill on prevention of domestic violence. During first reading deputies put a condition to exclude the terms “gender” and “sexual orientation” before the enactment. According to human rights defenders and experts this is unacceptable”, – said Iryna Vyrtosu, the coordinator of the campaign and Chief Editor of the Human Rights Information Centre website.

Istanbul Convention of the Council of Europe is an important international document, which will allow to create the conditions for combating violence against women and domestic violence. Ukraine has signed the Convention back in 2011. Ratification of the document was scheduled for the second quarter of 2016, but still there has been no significant progress in this direction.

“The issue of ratification of Istanbul Convention is extremely important for Ukrainians. The Convention will oblige the government to implement a series of measures that will prevent domestic violence: create a system of comprehensive and immediate assistance for victims, ensure the accountability of perpetrators and establish an effective monitoring of domestic violence and violence against women”, – said Oksana Pokalchuk, the coordinator of the campaign and the Executive Director of the Amnesty International Ukraine.

In addition, the Amnesty International Ukraine and the Human Rights Information Centre together with other civil society organizations urged all the willing to join the campaign in social networks by publicly expressing their support for ratification of the Istanbul Convention. From February 6 to 14 everyone willing shared videos, selfies and posts with hashtag #ConventionAsPresent on Facebook social network. On February 13 Twitter and Facebook-storm happened: activists shared satirical images of deputies and urged politicians to ratify the Istanbul Convention.

“By initiating this campaign of caricatures of our leadership we wanted to once again draw their attention and attention of public to the issue of domestic violence. Frankly, we are tired of writing considered posts with calls to ratify the Convention and adopt the corresponding laws. The ratification of the Istanbul Convention is not a matter of a single day or one campaign. But this way we are showing that we care about this issue and are ready to push until there are decisive steps from the parliament and the president”, – commented Iryna Vyrtosu, the coordinator of the campaign and the Chief Editor of the Human Rights Information Centre website.

Ratification of the Istanbul Convention will be the key to further reform the legislation of Ukraine (particularly concerning combating domestic violence and violence against women) and indicate the seriousness of intentions of the state to closer approach the international standards of human rights protection.