The seven independent expert mechanisms that make up the EDVAW Platform are entrusted with monitoring and supporting the implementation of States’ commitments under the global and regional women's human rights frameworks. The Beijing Platform for Action forms part of this framework. The different mechanisms support and complement each other in these efforts through a dynamic and complex relationship. The contributions made by the different expert mechanisms towards the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action are compiled in a booklet entitled “25 years in review of the Beijing Platform for Action – Contributions of the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on Discrimination and Violence against Women".

The President of GREVIO took over the Presidency of the EDVAW Platform for a one-year mandate starting on 1 February 2022 and ending on 30 January 2023. It is the first regional mechanism to chair the Platform, following its establishment in 2018 and which has until now been chaired by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. As agreed by the Platform, her mandate will focus on the digital dimension of violence against women at the global level, informed by GREVIO’s General Recommendation on this issue.

GREVIO takes an active part in the EDVAW Platform’s work by sharing its insights and experiences in monitoring the implementation of the Istanbul Convention in Council of Europe member states that are party to this landmark treaty. It adds a European voice to the EDVAW Platform. By exchanging directly with other regional and global monitoring mechanisms, GREVIO fosters synergies and helps to identify challenges in the protection of women’s rights, in particular in the area of preventing and combating violence against women, that are common to all regions of the world. As a result of these common concerns, several joint statements have been issued by the members of the Platform which are listed in a separate section below.

GREVIO is represented at the level of its President who takes part in regular meetings of the EDVAW Platform as well as in panels of the Platform organised in the framework of international or regional meetings.  In May 2019, GREVIO hosted the conference “Women’s Rights at the Crossroads: strengthening international cooperation to close the gap between legal frameworks and their implementation”, bringing all Platform members to the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg, France, for the first time.

Besides GREVIO, the following mechanisms are part of the EDVAW Platform:

• The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences

The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences is mandated by the Human Rights Council to seek and receive information on violence against women, its causes and consequences, and to recommend measures for its elimination. In that respect, she publishes annual thematic reports and undertakes country visits. She works closely with all special procedures and human rights mechanisms of the Human Rights Council to promote a comprehensive and universal approach to the elimination of violence against women.

• The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), composed of 23 independent experts, monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It reviews reports that states parties have submitted on how they implement the Convention and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the state in the form of concluding observations. It may also receive individual communications about claims of violations of women’s rights, initiate inquiries into situations of grave or systematic violations, as well as formulate general recommendations about specific articles or themes of the Convention.

• The UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice

The Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, composed of 5 independent experts, is mandated by the Human Rights Council to develop a dialogue with states and other actors to identify, promote and exchange views on best practices related to the elimination of laws that discriminate against women and prepare a compendium of such practices. It also offers support to states in the implementation of their obligations to address multiple forms of discrimination.

• The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ Rapporteur on the Rights of Women

The Office of the Rapporteur on the Rights of Women is one of eight thematic Rapporteurs of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). It makes specific recommendations to encourage states to meet their priority obligations for equality and non-discrimination, including by conducting country visits to states. The Rapporteur also promotes mechanisms that the inter-American human rights system provides to protect women’s rights – such as the lodging of individual complaints – prepares specialised studies and reports and assists the Commission in responding to petitions and other reports of violations of these rights in the region.

• The Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa

The Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women is mandated by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to assist African governments in the development and implementation of policies for the promotion and protection of women’s rights, and to undertake promotional and fact finding missions in member states of the African Union about the situation of women’s rights. The Special Rapporteur also follows up on the implementation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and its Protocol relative to the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) by preparing reports on the situation of women’s rights and proposing recommendations to be adopted by the Commission.

• The Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention

The Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention analyses progress in the implementation of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women. The Committee of Experts is the technical part of the Follow-up Mechanism, responsible for evaluating the states parties’ implementation of the Convention, formulating recommendations, as well as producing reports and follow-up reports.

Members of the Platform have met on several occasions, shared information, exchanged on issues of common concern and issued joint statements on specific themes.

GREVIO also organised a conference on “Women’s rights at the Crossroads: strengthening international cooperation to close the gap between legal frameworks and their implementation” on 24 May 2019 in Strasbourg. In its follow up evaluation of the results, the Platform called on States to pay particular attention to these patterns and to take the necessary measures to ensure implementation of international standards that require that intimate partner violence against women is thoroughly weighed in the determination of child custody.

17 June 2022, Geneva - Meeting of the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on Discrimination and Violence against Women (EVAW Platform) during the Human Rights Council – report

28 January 2022 – Online meeting of the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on Discrimination and Violence against Women (EDVAW Platform)

16 March 2022 - Online meeting of the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on Discrimination and Violence against Women (EDVAW Platform)

8 October 2021 : Online meeting of the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on Discrimination and Violence against Women (EDVAW Platform) – report

21 October 2020 - Online meeting of the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on Discrimination and Violence against Women (EDVAW Platform) - report

14 May 2020 - Online meeting of the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on Discrimination and Violence against Women (EDVAW Platform) - report

March 2020 (cancelled because of the COVID19 pandemic) - Meeting of the Platform of independent international and regional mechanisms on violence against women and women's rights during the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women

3 February 2020, Addis Ababa - Meeting of the Platform of independent international and regional mechanisms on violence against women and women's rights under the leadership of the UN Special Rapporteur and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights Special Rapporteur on Rights of Women in Africa and in collaboration with the Secretariat of Gender Is My Agenda Campaign (GIMAC) and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for Eastern Africa (EARO) - report

May 2019, Strasbourg - Official Regional Meeting of the Platform of independent international and regional mechanisms on violence against women and women's rights hosted by the Council of Europe - report

March 2019 - Informal Meeting of the Platform of independent mechanisms during the 63^rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women

November 2018 - Meeting with the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, in Washington, DC, USA

October 2018 - Official Regional Meeting of the Platform of independent international and regional mechanisms on violence against women and women's rights, during the 169th session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in Boulder, Colorado, United States of America - report

March 2018 - Meeting of the mechanisms with UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.

March 2018 - Expert group meeting on violence against women in politics at the headquarters of UN Women - news release and SRVAW report

March 2018 - First Official Meeting: Consultation between Global and Regional Mechanisms on Violence and Discrimination against Women, 62nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women - agenda

March 2018 - CSW High Level Panel on "Strengthening Cooperation between Global and Regional Independent Mechanisms dealing with Violence and Discrimination against Women", 62^nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women - flyer and concept note

November 2017 - Panel "Regional and International Mechanisms for an integral approach to violence against women and girls", organized in Washington, DC by MESECVI - concept note and video)

March 2017- Meeting of independent global and regional experts on women's rights and violence against women with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

March 2017 - Panel "A journey to strengthen cooperation between the international and regional mechanisms on women's rights", 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women

17 June 2022 – Women’s rights experts call for more recognition of the digital dimension of violence against women in human rights implementation efforts – statement

8 March 2022 – Joint statement on International Women’s Day “Using the international and regional legal framework to stop all forms of violence against women and girls”

November 2021 - Joint statement - International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

March 2021 - Joint call of the EDVAW Platform on the UN Commission on the Status of Women  to use women’s human rights instruments and expert mechanisms to accelerate the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action 

July 2020 - Urgent action needed to end pandemic of gender-based violence, say women’s rights experts - press release/statement

February 2020 - Elimination of discrimination and violence against women and girls, including its root causes, must be integrated in all efforts to silence the guns before, during and after conflict - press release/statement

November 2019 - Absence of consent must become the global standard for definition of rape, say experts - press release/statement

May 2019 - Intimate partner violence against women is an essential factor in the determination of child custody, say women’s rights experts - statement

May 2019 - Statement of the Platform of independent United Nations and regional expert mechanisms on violence against women and women’s rights. Violence and harassment against women and girls in the world of work is a human rights violation, say independent human rights mechanisms on violence against women and women's rights - statement

March 2019 - Independent women human rights mechanisms are part of the solution to "push back the pushbacks and keep pushing back" - statement

November 2018 Joint statement International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women - End the global epidemic of femicide (*NiUnaMenos) and support women speaking up against violence against women (*MeToo) - statement

November 2017 - Joint call by UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and global and regional mechanisms on women’s rights to eradicate gender-based violence against women - statement

July 2017 - Joint statement by independent UN and regional women's human rights mechanisms on the consideration of Sustainable Development Goal 5 by the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development - statement

November 2016 - GREVIO joins call for more efforts to prevent gender-based violence. International Day on the Elimination of Violence against Women – Joint call by UN Rapporteur on Violence against Women and all other global and regional mechanisms to end femicide and gender-based violence - statement

In this section, you will find a list of thematic resources such as reports and instruments from the different mechanisms.

First focus: Online and technology-facilitated violence against women and girls

SR VAW – Report on online violence against women (2018).

GREVIO – General Recommendation No.1 on the digital dimension of violence against women (2021), available in English and French

Study on “Protecting women and girls from violence in the digital age - The relevance of the Istanbul Convention and the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime in addressing online and technology-facilitated violence against women” (2021) available in English, in French and in Spanish.

OAS MESECVI – White Paper on “Cyber-security for women during the COVID-19 pandemic – Experiences, risks and self-care strategies in the new normal digital era” (2021) available in English and in Spanish.

OAS MESECVI and CICTE – Publication on “Online gender-based violence against women and girls – Guide of basic concepts, digital security tools, and response strategies” (2021) available in English and in Spanish.

OAS MESECVI – Report on “Cyberviolence and Cyber-harassment against women and girls within the framework of the Belém Do Pará Convention” (2022) available in Spanish.

OAS, CICTE and the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) - free online course on digital security with a gender perspective "Our Networks, Our Security", to contribute to a better understanding of the disproportionate impact of cyber threats on women and provide tools for digital self-care. The course is currently available in Spanish, but is planned to be launched in English and Portuguese.

ACHPR – Resolution 522 on the Protection of Women Against Digital Violence in Africa (2022), available here.

Second focus: Custody and domestic violence

EDVAW Platform statement (2019).

CEDAW - General recommendation No. 35 on Gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19 (2017).

GREVIO – 3rd General Report on GREVIO's activities (2022), available in English and in French.