Why It Is Important To Ratify Istanbul Convention

In May 2020, a petition calling for ratification of the Istanbul Convention received more than 25,000 votes. This is one of the few petitions that has collected the required number of signatures. Why is the convention so important? What is it deals with? Why do Ukrainian men and women so sincerely support its ratification?

The purpose of the Istanbul Convention is zero tolerance for domestic violence. The systematic nature of the norms of the convention imposes a positive obligation on the state to ensure an effective mechanism for protection against all forms of violence against women and domestic violence. According to the convention, the state must prevent the occurrence of domestic violence, work with the stereotypes that exist in society regarding domestic violence, provide adequate protection and support to victims of domestic violence, and so on. The full text of the convention is available here.

Ukraine, together with other countries, signed the Istanbul Convention in 2011. More than 30 countries have already ratified the convention. As of June 2020, Ukraine is still preparing for its ratification.

We collected the opinions of tomorrow’s lawyers about the importance of this convention – sincere, open, emotional, and through the prism of their own professional experience.

The full text of the interview is published on the Program web-site and available in Ukrainian.

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The opinions expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not reflect the position of the “Tomorrow’s Lawyer” NGO, the Ukrainian Bar Association, the Bar Association of Legal Aid Providers, and the United States Embassy in Ukraine.

“Tomorrow’s Lawyer” Program is a powerful network of lawyers uniting opinion leaders in the legal profession, who provide legal assistance in accordance with the highest ethical standards, act as agents of change in society and leaders in the professional community.

The “Tomorrow’s Lawyer” Program was launched in 2016 and first implemented within the “Quality and Accessible Legal Aid” Project, carried out by the Canadian Bureau for International Education with the support of the Government of Canada in cooperation with the Legal Aid Coordination Centre. It is currently being implemented and developed with the support of the US Embassy’s INL Section in Ukraine, the “Tomorrow’s Lawyer” NGO, in partnership with the Ukrainian Bar Association and the Bar Association of Legal Aid Providers.