The President of GREVIO, Professor Feride Acar took part in the joint meeting of the Platform of independent international & regional mechanisms on violence against women and women’s rights, on 2 October 2018, in Boulder, Colorado (USA). The Platform aims to develop institutional links and thematic cooperation between the mechanisms with a view to improving the implementation of the existing international legal and policy framework on violence against women.

The meeting focused on issues of common concern such as backlash against women’s rights, femicide, violence against women in politics, threats and violence against women’s human rights defenders, reproductive rights, progress and challenges related to the work of monitoring mechanisms and effective strategies for cooperation and coordination to ensure the full implementation of regional and international standards to end gender based violence.

The President of GREVIO informed participants about progress with the ratification and implementation of the Council of Europe convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). She highlighted some of the preliminary findings related to progress and challenges with the implementation as identified by the first country evaluation reports published by GREVIO.