12/12/2008 Equality and Non-Discrimination
“I welcome the decision by the Committee of Ministers to approve the terms of reference of an ad hoc committee to draft a legal instrument aiming at preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence,” said Carina Hägg, Chair of the PACE Sub-Committee on Violence against Women. “Thanks to the involvement of Assembly members and the efforts of the Committee of Ministers supported by Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, it is now possible to start work on drafting a convention,” she added.
“But it is only a first step,” she went on to say. “PACE will be closely following the negotiations and will defend the position that it adopted unanimously on 3 October in favour of a convention encompassing the gender dimension and covering the most severe and widespread forms of violence against women, including domestic violence, forced marriages and sexual violence.”