Istanbul Convention

The Istanbul Convention is the short name for the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, opened for signature in Istanbul on 11 May 2011 and entered into force on 1 August 2014 after reaching ten ratifications.

It is the first legally binding regional instrument in Europe to comprehensively address gender-based violence. The treaty is structured around four pillars commonly summarised as the "four Ps": prevention, protection of victims, prosecution of offenders, and integrated policies. Substantive obligations include criminalising psychological violence, stalking, physical and sexual violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, forced abortion and forced sterilisation, and obliging states to fund shelters, helplines and specialist support services.

Compliance is monitored by GREVIO (the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence), an independent expert body that issues country evaluation reports, and by a political Committee of the Parties.

The Convention is open to non-Council of Europe states. The European Union signed it in 2017 and concluded accession in 2023, joining in relation to matters of judicial cooperation in criminal matters and asylum/non-refoulement, after the Court of Justice clarified the legal basis in Opinion 1/19 (2021).

The treaty has been politically contested. Turkey, the host of the signing, withdrew by presidential decree effective 1 July 2021, citing concerns about its perceived effect on family values and references to gender identity. Poland's government announced an intention to withdraw in 2020 but did not complete the process. Bulgaria's Constitutional Court ruled in 2018 that the Convention was incompatible with the national constitution, blocking ratification. Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic (until its 2024 signature debate) and Latvia delayed ratification for years over similar debates around the term "gender" used in Article 3.