Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on Discrimination and Violence against Women - EDVAW Platform
12 March 2026, New York - CSW70 Side Event: Women's Access to Justice Free from Legal Retaliation
A side-event to the seventieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) organised by the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on Discrimination and Violence against Women (EDVAW Platform) and UN Women
Watch the recording
GREVIO and the EDVAW Platform
GREVIO is part of the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on Discrimination and Violence against Women (EDVAW Platform) which gathers seven United Nations and regional independent expert mechanisms on violence against women and women’s rights operating at the international and regional levels.
Over the years, co-operation between the different members of the Platform has gradually increased, moving from the adoption of joint statements and the holding of meetings to the adoption of its first-ever joint thematic paper, in 2022, on the digital dimension of violence against women as addressed by its seven mechanisms under GREVIO’s first Presidency of the Platform below.
A full description of the EDVAW Platform, its rotating presidencies, activities, and membership is available on the Platform’s official website.
GREVIO’s role in and contribution to the EDVAW Platform
GREVIO takes an active role by sharing its insights and experiences in monitoring the implementation of the Istanbul Convention in Council of Europe member states that are parties 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.
GREVIO is represented at the level of its President who takes part in regular events of the EDVAW Platform as well as in panels of the Platform organised in the framework of international or regional meetings.
GREVIO is currently presiding over the EDVAW Platform, from 1 January to 31 December 2026, making it the second time GREVIO holds the presidency of the Platform. GREVIO President Maria Andriani Kostopoulou has put forward the issue of women’s access to justice and legal retaliation against women using justice systems or advocating for women’s rights. It will be further developed throughout the year.
GREVIO's presidency in 2022 was the first time that a regional mechanism chaired the Platform, following its establishment in 2018 and which has until January 2022 been chaired by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. During GREVIO’s presidency, the GREVIO President Iris Luarasi focused her mandate on the digital dimension of violence against women at the global level, informed by GREVIO’s General Recommendation No.1 on the digital dimension of violence against women (2021).
In May 2019, GREVIO hosted the conference “Women’s Rights at the Crossroads: strengthening international co-operation 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.
EDVAW Platform key documents
Position Paper on Women, Peace and Security (2025)
Flyer - About the EDVAW Platform (2022)
Position Paper on 30 Years in Review of the Beijing Platform for Action (2022)
Thematic paper on the digital dimension of violence against women (2022)
