Gender-based violence is accepted as a violation of human rights. In 2011, the member states of the Council of Europe adopted the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the “Istanbul Convention”. This Convention is the most comprehensive human rights treaty against gender-based violence to date. In Germany, it entered into force on 1st February 2018, and obliges the state, among other things, to strengthen counselling and protection for victims and to raise awareness among the population, especially among boys and men, of all forms of violence and to prosecute them effectively. In the area of domestic violence or intimate partner violence, the Convention also explicitly obliges the States Parties to protect boys and men.
Art. 10 of the Istanbul Convention obliges the parties to install bodies that co-ordinate, implement, monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Istanbul Convention. The Institute has been advocating for sound protection concepts since its foundation. On 1st November 2022, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth entrusted the Institute with the obligations of monitoring and evaluating the implementation of these provisions in Germany. The established National Rapporteur Mechanism on gender-based violence works independently of the Federal Government.
Link to the Concept for two National Rapporteur Mechanisms on gender-based violence and trafficking in human beings.
