07/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - New legal definition of rape in Germany acceptable to Council of Europe. On Wednesday 6 July, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe (CoE), Thorbjorn Jagland, responded to the vote that day at the Bundestag and said that Germany was now in compliance with the 2011 CoE Istanbul Convention opposing violence against women. In a reference to former German legislation limiting the definition to any sexual relation obtained by violence, he underlined that “rape is not just physical aggression” but was also “when a woman says no to a sexual relationship, she means no”. He had called on Berlin to ratify the Istanbul Convention “in an effort to encourage other governments to commit to this approach”. Out of the 47 CoE member states, five countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Russia and Liechtenstein) have neither signed nor ratified this convention. 22 countries have ratified it and 20 have signed it with the intention of including it within their respective national law. (VL)