As delivered

• I am very pleased to be able to be with you today, just a week after the crucial first meeting of GREVIO, the independent expert monitoring body set up under the Istanbul Convention.

• GREVIO is made up of ten independent experts, who elected as their first president, Ms Feride Acar, and as its two vice presidents, Ms Rosa Logar and Ms Marceline Naudi. They are all highly qualified and with extensive experience on the issue of violence against women.

• The Committee is the beating heart of the Istanbul Convention. It is the Council of Europe’s watchdog in the area of violence against women and domestic violence, and it will have to play a vital role in making this ground-breaking legal instrument respected in both law and practice in the Parties to the Istanbul Convention.

• GREVIO’s ultimate aim is to help the millions of women and girls victims who continue to suffer from various forms of violence in Europe and beyond.

• The expectations are therefore high, and the challenges ahead are numerous. GREVIO will have to use the most suitable tools at their disposal to gain the best knowledge possible of the situation on the ground. The credibility of GREVIO will depend highly on its capacity to identify where the problems actually are, to make realistic suggestions and proposals, to encourage positive developments and to help the Parties to move forward.

• The members of GREVIO have an in-depth knowledge of the Convention’s standards and a rich diversity in their fields of expertise. Their practical experience, independence and commitment will be crucial in assuring that GREVIO becomes a respected body, following in the path of other Council of Europe independent monitoring bodies.

• But they must not be left alone in fulfilling this mission. I have little doubt that they will get strong political support from you. Indeed, the Istanbul Convention is ground-breaking in many ways, including the roles it assigns to national parliaments and to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

• GREVIO immediately started their work to monitor the implementation of the Convention. They adopted their own rules of procedure, which will shortly be made public. These rules govern not only the functioning of GREVIO, but also the country-by-country evaluation procedure, including country visits, and the special inquiry procedure.

• I would like to mention in particular that GREVIO adopted a Title dedicated to the “Relationship with Parliaments” in which six rules reflect GREVIO’s desire to have strong and close collaboration with national parliaments, PACE and, indeed, your network.

The rules adopted regarding national parliaments will encourage the Parties to the Convention to involve their respective parliaments in the reporting on the implementation of the Convention.   GREVIO may also meet with parliamentarians to gather further information with regard to a Party’s report.  Similarly, GREVIO will take steps to ensure that its reports are submitted to parliaments, so that they can exercise parliamentary oversight of governmental action to give effect to the provisions of the Convention.

At the same time, GREVIO will collaborate with Committee of the Parties to ensure that the PACE is regularly provided with the opportunity to take stock of the implementation of the Convention.

• We hope to be able to explore these synergies in greater depth at the upcoming conference to be held in Sarajevo under the Committee of Ministers’ chairmanship of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will be attended by you, Ms Gafarova, in your role as general rapporteur and, I hope, a number of other members of your Network.

•  We all have a duty to work together to make the monitoring of the Istanbul Convention progressive, responsive and effective.