July 30, Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland has called on nine member states to sign and ratify the ‘Istanbul Convention’ to strengthen women’s safety across Europe.
The Convention which is also known as The Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combatting Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence came into force on 1 August 2014.
The groundbreaking convention criminalises violence against women in all its forms, challenges the social taboos and obliges all signatories to prosecute perpetrators.
Azerbaijan is among 9 member states still to sign the treaty. Other countries are Armenia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Ireland, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation.