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A Ukrainian woman holds her baby in a shelter for refugees near the Ukrainian-Polish border

Photo: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI / AFP

The EU has announced its accession to the Istanbul Convention on the Protection of Women's Rights. The Council of EU member states finally decided on the Union's accession on Thursday, after the European Parliament had already voted in favour in May. Upon accession, the convention will also be valid, at least in part, in those EU member states that have not yet ratified it themselves.

The convention, which was agreed in Istanbul in 2011, is an agreement of the Council of Europe, to which 46 states are members. The countries commit themselves to better protection of women and girls, for example through the prosecution of perpetrators of violence. It also includes special protection measures for migrant and asylum-seeking women.

Individual EU countries are blocking

So far, 21 EU member states have ratified the convention, while Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary have not yet ratified it. Poland also wants to withdraw from the convention. Among other things, these states are opposed to the requirement that "non-stereotypical gender roles" should be promoted in the classroom – and see the danger of encouraging illegal immigration into the EU.

However, in an opinion in October 2021, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) concluded that the EU can join the agreement without the consent of all member states. With the accession of the EU, the Convention applies in all 27 member states – but only in those areas in which the EU has exclusive competence: for example, in the cooperation of the judiciary and law enforcement authorities and in the right of asylum.

In Germany, the convention came into force at the beginning of 2018 and has been in force indefinitely since February. Previously, the traffic light coalition had lifted reservations of the grand coalition of the Union and SPD from 2018. Among other things, they concerned the right of residence of foreign victims of violence.

mrc/AFP