1 October 2023 marked the entry into force of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (CETS 210) in respect of the European Union, which became the 38th Party to the Convention.
As the most far-reaching legally binding human rights treaty covering all forms of violence against women and domestic violence, the Istanbul Convention can be particularly relevant to address online and technology-facilitated violence against women.
Additionally, the Istanbul Convention and the Budapest Convention can complement each other in dynamic ways: the power of the Istanbul Convention lies in recognizing the gender-based nature of violence against women while the Budapest Convention enables exercise of procedural powers and international cooperation mechanism in relation to cybercrime and any offence entailing electronic evidence. These links were explored in a T-CY Cyberviolence mapping study, but also in a study “Protecting women and girls from violence in the digital age “ prepared by international consultant Adriane van der Wilk under the responsibility of the Secretariat of the Violence Against Women Division of the Council of Europe.
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