Following the announcement by Turkey of its withdrawal from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), ALDE-PACE President Jacques Maire declared:
“Just a few hours after the PACE Standing Committee held a current affairs debate deploring major attacks from Turkish authorities against human rights and democracy, Turkey decides to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, the key European instrument for combatting violence against women.
Turkey’s withdrawal will unfortunately compromise the protection of women’s rights in Turkey and affect our mechanism on the European scale.
This decision of the Turkish authorities goes against our common European values. The first victims of this populist and reactionary political move will again be the Turkish people. This decision comes after numerous acts of non-compliance with Council of Europe’s standards.
We fully support the statement of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe who called this news ‘devastating’.
On behalf of the ALDE group, I call on all progressive parliamentarians of Council of Europe member states to come together to promote the Istanbul Convention as the most advanced international instrument to combat violence against women and support the fight of Turkish civil society to defend its rights.”
