Check against delivery

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the first meeting of the Committee of the Parties to the Istanbul Convention.

I first joined the Council of Europe when I was in my twenties, and I can tell you: few Conventions have such impressive beginnings.  

In just three years the Istanbul Convention has been signed by 19 states and ratified by 18 – that is extraordinary, by any standards.

It has been backed by parliaments and governments, other intergovernmental organisations, NGOs and campaigners – and it has put the Council of Europe at the forefront of the fight for gender equality.

For me, there is nowhere else I would rather us be.

Crucially, when we agreed this Treaty, we didn’t lower our ambitions simply to come up with something on which everyone could easily agree.

We pushed the boundaries.

We produced a Treaty which frames violence against women as a cause and a consequence of inequality between the sexes.

A Treaty which enable states not just to prevent harmful acts, not just to protect victims, not just to prosecute offenders – but to do all three.

A Treaty which clamps down on all  types of abuse – from emotional torment, to stalking and harassment, to beatings and rape.

I want to pay tribute to all of those member States who have supported these moves with real political will – and I want to urge others to follow your lead.

The real test, of course, comes now: putting the Convention into force. And that is where your work will be crucial.

This Committee brings together all States Parties to the Istanbul Convention, and you will be supported by GREVIO: a Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.

This two-tiered structure is not foreign to the Council of Europe, and indeed there are examples of similarly-structured monitoring mechanisms which have built a solid reputation for themselves, in particular in the field of action to stop human trafficking.

I am convinced that the Istanbul Convention’s monitoring mechanism will aspire to equally high standards of quality, efficiency, even-handedness and credibility.

The road ahead – making the ideals in Istanbul a reality on the ground – is a long one. And the picture across member States is complicated.

We want you to take the opportunity to be innovative and responsive.

That’s why, for example, the Committee envisages a role for national parliaments and the Parliamentary Assembly in the monitoring of its implementation.

In addition to its country-by-country evaluation procedure, it allows for an ad-hoc inquiry procedure as a form of rapid reaction to large-scale violations of the Convention.

Your first task – and the reason you meet today – is an extremely important one: electing the members of GREVIO.

GREVIO will be your experts on the ground.

The strength of this expert body will depend on its multidisciplinary composition and the qualifications, availability, dedication and independence of its members.

You, as members of the Committee of the Parties, will be under the collective responsibility to ensure the effectiveness of the monitoring mechanism by following up on GREVIO’s findings…

…by supervising the implementation of your own recommendations…

…and by interacting with other Council of Europe bodies whenever necessary.

I wish you every success in these endeavours.

The Council of Europe has already received two awards for the Istanbul Convention – the Vision Award from the World Future Council, Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women, as well as Spain’s VIII Award for outstanding work in the eradication of domestic and gender violence.

The international community and various actors at national level, including non-governmental organisations, are placing high hopes in the Convention’s monitoring mechanism and are eagerly awaiting it to become operational.

I hope that you find your place and role swiftly, developing synergies with other bodies and entities, and driving forward the ambitions of our Treaty.

We have our Convention.

We have our compass.

Now we need to deliver.

I thank you in advance for everything you will do.