Istanbul Convention: Where there is still a lack of protection for women in Germany

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Experts See Significant Safety Concerns for Victims of Domestic Violence (Iconic Image)

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It has been five years since Germany ratified a Council of Europe Convention to combat domestic violence and violence against women.

In 2018, the treaty, better known as the Istanbul Convention, came into force.

What has improved since then – and where is there a need for action?

A panel of experts from the Council of Europe has investigated these questions and analyzed the political measures.

Conclusion of the study, which will be presented this Friday: Germany has made progress in some areas, but at the same time there are still "serious deficits" in the protection of women and girls from gender-specific violence.

In many regions there is a lack of women's shelters, the hurdles for admission are often high, according to a summary.

The consequences for victims of domestic violence: According to the study, many women and their children cannot find safe accommodation and have to decide whether to return to the perpetrator or risk homelessness.

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There is "urgent action to increase the number of places available in women's shelters and to ensure appropriate geographical distribution across the country." endangers a woman affected by violence or her children – this is what Article 31 of the Istanbul Convention stipulates.

The report highlights cases where abusive fathers are granted custody and visitation rights without adequate attention being paid to safety concerns of women or children.

Experts, for example in courts or youth welfare offices, should pay more attention to how negatively it affects children when they have witnessed how one parent abused another, the experts demand.

Protection against violence depends heavily on where you live

There are also "persistent security concerns" for women and girls in collective accommodation for refugees.

The expert group expresses "great concern" at reports of unsafe washrooms, rooms that cannot be locked, dormitories that are not segregated by gender, poor lighting, lack of safe areas, abuse by security guards, and poor management of incidents of harassment and abuse by male residents.

The report also notes that "negative gender stereotypes and perpetrator-victim reversal attitudes appear to persist in the German judiciary."

If sexual violence is directed against a former or current spouse, the court sees this as a mitigating rather than an aggravating circumstance – despite a contrary ruling by the Federal Court of Justice, the group says, citing lawyers.

According to the experts, an overarching problem is that Germany lacks a national action plan or coordination at federal level, although the Istanbul Convention requires this.

How good the network of advice centers and the cooperation between authorities is varies considerably from state to state.

»Strong Women’s Movement« – »Promising Measures«

In addition to all the criticism, the experts also see positive things.

The Federal Republic had taken important legislative measures to implement the Istanbul Convention in some cases before it came into force.

The Violence Protection Act is expressly mentioned.

Those affected can apply for a court order to keep the violent person at a distance.

Another plus is the reform of sexual criminal law.

The report emphasizes that people can now be prosecuted if they do not have the other person's consent to engage in sexual activity.

Measures to protect against digital violence are also praised;

such as the explicit criminalization of cyberstalking, the unauthorized taking of pictures of private body parts or the use of stalker software.

This has contributed "to a solid catalog of criminal law on digital violence against women".

The group highlights Germany's many years of experience in combating violence against women.

This is expressly seen »in connection with a strong women's movement and diverse women's rights organizations«, which provided the majority of the specialist advice centers and actively addressed violence against women.

This led to "a large number of promising measures" in the federal states.

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