Prague, Feb 8 (CTK) – The Czech government approved the Council of Europe (CE) Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence on Monday, Human Rights Minister Jiri Dienstbier (Social Democrats, CSSD) has written on Twitter.
The document defines various crimes connected with violence against women and domestic violence, such as forced marriages, female genital mutilation, forced abortion and sterilisation, and demands their criminalisation. It also included measures to prevent such violence.
The Czech Republic is one of the last EU member states not to ratify the Istanbul convention.
It is the first international treaty dealing with violence against women in detail with the aim to achieve zero tolerance of these forms of discrimination and human rights violations.
“The ratification of the convention is in harmony with the foreign-political interests of the Czech Republic, it will help prevent and suppress gender-related violence against women and domestic violence and strengthen international cooperation in these areas,” the Justice Ministry said in its report for the government.
The adoption of the convention will require some changes in Czech legal regulations, which the ministry will manage to submit to the government by the end of June, 2017.
The document could be submitted to parliament for ratification by June 30, 2018.
The convention has been in effect since August 2014. It has been possible to sign it since 2011.
So far, 39 members of the Council of Europe have joined it. Eight, including the Czech Republic, have not signed it yet, Out of the EU countries, Bulgaria and Latvia have not signed it either.
