Norms and Legal Instruments on Preventing Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. Highlights from the Istanbul Convention

• Author: Marcela Monica Stoica
• Pages: 45-51

Legal Sciences in the New Millennium

45

Norms and Legal Instruments on Preventing Violence against Women and

Domestic Violence. Highlights from the Istanbul Convention

Marcela Monica Stoica1

Abstract: Women’s rights are human rights and violence against women is actually a violation of human

rights and a form of discrimination. For many decades, a form of violence against women is so called “intimate

partner violence”. This kind of violence includes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and even the control

of behavior by an intimate partner. Thus, this paper aims at analyzing, in a legal and sociological paradigm,

the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence,

developed by the Council of Europe, an instrument that could lead to a growing integration of human rights

combating the biases that accept the violence against women. Through these norms, instruments and

education women should be empowered to break the cycle of accepting subordination and violence.

Therefore, the conclusions resulting from the study are that cultural and religious customs and traditions that

are used to ju stify violence against women must be forbidden. A lot of campaigns for raising awareness on

this issue have to be launched aim aiming at challenging their acceptance in society.

Keywords: Istanbul Convention; women; violence; victims; bias

Introduction

The present study is based on the legal documents and statistics published by international and European

organizations in the field of human rights.

The women’s rights issue preoccupied the whole world but the first steps in their defender were made

only after the international organizations like United Nations, African State Organization, Latin and

South American Organizations and recently, the regional organizations from Europe such as Council of

Europe and the European Union got involved. All these entities created legal binding instruments aiming

at preventing, combating and protecting the human rights. Thus, this study is divided in three parts that

approach, chronologically and historically, the phases in which the problematic of women was subject

of debates in the public sphere as a unique entity with rights and duties able to act at every level of a

society and in all fields of life. The important successes of today wouldn’t be possible if it hadn’t been

guided by the principle of equal opportunities, non-discrimination and the day to day fight against

prejudices, cultural habits, and religious belief. From all forms and actions that break the women’s rights

we focus on violence against women and on domestic violence in this relation being involved the

intimate partner violence.

1 Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Facult y of Po litical Sciences, Ro mania, Address: 176 Splaiul Unirii, Bucharest,

Romania, Corresponding author: mms_stoica@yahoo.com.