last updated May 23, 2008
The Council of Europe's work on the issue of domestic violence began in 1985 when the Committee of Ministers adopted Recommendation No.R(85), Recommendation on Violence in the Family. In 1990 the COE’s Committee Ministers followed with Recommendation on Social Measures concerning Violence within the Family, Recommendation No R (90) 2, and again in 1991 with Recommendation No. R(91), Recommendation on Emergency Family Matters. (These documents can be ordered from the Violence Against Women page of the Website for the Equality Division of the Council of Europe.)
Violence against women, including domestic violence, was also a subject of the Third, Fourth and Fifth European Ministerial Conferences. The subject of the Third Conference in Rome in 1993 was "Strategies for the elimination of violence against women in society: the media and other means." At the conclusion of that conference, the Ministers adopted the Declaration on Policies for Combating Violence Against Women in a Democratic Europe that, among other things, recommended that the COE draft and implement a plan of action to combat violence against women.
The COE established a Group of Specialists to investigate the issue and produce the Plan of Action. The Group of Specialists' final report, Equality Between Women and Men: Priorities for the Future (EG-S-FP (99) 1), describes efforts that have been undertaken in Europe to combat violence against women, discusses the success of these efforts and obstacles to success, evaluates options that are available to enforce anti-discrimination provisions, and makes recommendations for future action.
The Plan of Action to Combat Violence Against Women (EG-S-VL (98)), June 1998, was finalized in 1998. The report describes the Group of Specialists' findings with respect to the nature of violence against women, the scope of the problem, the work that has been undertaken, and current challenges and problems. The report also describes the COE's Plan of Action for Member States. The Plan of Action recommends a number of strategies to combat domestic violence, including legislative, judicial and law enforcement reforms. The Plan also emphasizes the importance of prevention, education, assistance to victims and treatment of perpetrators.
Declaration on Equality Between Women and Men as a Fundamental Criterion of Democracy (MEG-4 (97) 18), was developed at the Fourth European Ministerial Conference on equality between women and men in Istanbul on 13-14 November 1997. In this document, the Ministers called on the COE to prepare an instrument setting forth the COE's position on domestic violence, and recommended that Member States work to reduce and eliminate men's violence "by initiating education ensuring respect of the other person and as concerns violent men, by supporting practical and therapeutic initiatives."
Recommendation No R (98)1 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on Family Mediation was adopted on January 21, 1998. In this Recommendation, the Committee of Ministers recommends that member States introduce and promote family mediation. The Recommendation specifically notes, however, that "the mediator should pay particular regard to whether violence has occurred in the past or may occur in the future between the parties and the effect this may have on the parties' bargaining positions, and should consider whether in these circumstances the mediation process is appropriate."
In April 2000, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation 1450 on violence against women in Europe. In this Recommendation, the Parliamentary Assembly called on the Committee of Ministers to create a European program to combat violence against women, with the aim of, among other things, "bringing in legislation outlawing all forms of domestic violence; establishing legal recognition of marital rape and making it a criminal offence; ensuring greater protection for women, for example by means of orders restraining violent husbands from entering the marital home and measures to properly enforce penalties and sentences; [and] ensuring greater flexibility as regards both access to justice and the availability of various procedures, with provision for ex officio action by the authorities, in camera hearings and court benches made up equally of female and male judges." In its Reply to the Parliamentary Assembly's Recommendation 1450, the Committee of Ministers stated that it "cannot but join the Assembly in condemning all forms of violence against women."
Recommendation No R (2002) 5, The Protection of Women Against Violence, was adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 30 April 2002. In that resolution, the Committee "[r]eaffirm[ed] that violence towards women is the result of an imbalance of power between men and women and is leading to serious discrimination against the female sex within society and within the family" and "[a]ffirm[ed] that violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms." The Recommendation called on Member States to:
In an Appendix, the Recommendation listed a number of specific steps that could be taken by Member States to combat violence against women. The Recommendation made clear that domestic violence was included in the definition of violence against women. The Council also provided an Annual Report (EG(2003)002 prov.) for 2002.
The Council of Europe's (COE) report, Gender Equality: a core issue in changing societies (MEG-5 (2003) 3), a document developed at the Fifth European Ministerial Conference on Equality between Women and Men, held in Skopje on 22-23 January 2003, sets forth the Committee of Ministers' recommendations to the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men on violence against women. The third objective outlined in the document is preventing and combating violence against women. Towards this goal, the Council recommended that the Committee develop COE norms and standards on violence and continue to develop activities to combat violence against women.
The roles of women and men in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and post-conflict democratic processes—a gender perspective (MEG-5 (2003) 4), sets forth the COE's recommendations developed through the Fifth European Ministerial Conference on Equality between Women and Men, held in Skopje on 22-23 January 2003. As part of these recommendations, the COE calls on governments to "raise awareness on the violation of the human rights of women during and after conflicts, and on the increase of domestic violence."
In October 2004 the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly issued Recommendation 1681, Campaign to Combat Domestic Violence against Women in Europe, expressing its concern about the rising level of domestic violence against women in Europe, and outlining a plan for a pan-European campaign against domestic violence in 2006. The goals of such a campaign would be three-fold: prevention, victim assistance and increased public information. The recommendation urges Member States to prioritize the issue of domestic violence and suggests ways for government, parliament and civil society to work together on the issue.
In January of 2005, the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly issued Recommendation 1693 as their contribution to the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe. The Assembly recommended that numerous elements be considered by the heads of state and government, such as the making of a commitment to continue to fight against all forms of violence, including domestic violence and trafficking in human beings. The Assembly stated its decision to conduct a pan-European campaign against domestic violence in 2006, in cooperation with the European Comission, the European Parliament, associations and NGOs, as recommended by Assembly Recommendation 1681 described above.
In June of 2005, the Parliamentary Assembly issued Recommendation 1712, which was a follow-up to the Third Summit. In Recommendation 1712, the Assembly recommended that, "in view of the constantly rising death toll from domestic violence..." the Committee of Ministers start the preparations for the campaign to combat violence against women, including domestic violence, in order to launch it in 2007.
In May of 2006, the Parliamentary Assembly issued Doc.10934, a report entitled "Parliaments united in combating domestic violence against women." In summary, the report contains measures and actions which will enable national parliaments to take an active role in the campaign to combat violence against women, including "...appointing a member of each parliament to act as point of contact, condemning domestic violence explicitly and publicly, adopting legislative measures and evaluating their effectiveness, and the running of awareness-raising campaigns targeting the public and socio-professional players."
On June 28, 2006, the Parliamentary Assembly adopted Resolution 1512, which decried domestic violence as one of the most widespread violations of human rights. It rejected any arguments based on cultural or religious relativism which would lead states to avoid their obligation to eliminate all forms of violence against women. It encouraged parliaments to actively combat domestic violence by taking public stances against it, by adopting appropriate legislative and budgetary measures and national plans, and also, to give special attention to especially vulnerable groups such as immigrant women, Roma women and disabled women. It called upon the parliaments of COE member states and those with observer status to support the COE's pan-European campaign to combat violence against women.
Also on June 28, 2006, the Parliamentary Assembly adopted Resolution 1759, in which it called upon the Committee of Ministers to make the fight against domestic violence a priority activity in 2006-2008, to allocate the funds necessary to ensure the success of the pan-European campaign to combat violence against women, and to support the efforts of NGOs to raise public awareness and offer protection to victims. The Assembly also urged the Committee of Ministers to "step up its co-operation with the European Union in order to develop a common method for compiling statistics on violence within the family."
On October 3, 2007, the Parliamentary Assembly adopted Resolution 1582. This Resolution reiterated the Assembly's intention to continue and to step up the implementation of the parliamentary dimension of the COE campaign to combat violence against women, including domestic violence. It emphasized the need for the parliaments to intensify their efforts to make the campaign have a real impact, and included numerous suggestions for specific actions, including setting up sufficient numbers of emergency shelters, providing for orders for protection to remove violent spouses, allocating sufficient funding to implement the laws, and to monitor the application of laws on violence against women.