On Monday 8 February and until 11 May, the European Commission opened a public consultation with a view to presenting, in the third quarter of 2021, an initiative to prevent gender-based violence and to punish its perpetrators.
Women are most affected by such violence: according to the most comprehensive study to date, in 2014, 33% of women were reportedly victims of sexual harassment. No specific legal instrument currently addresses this violence at European level.
According to the impact assessment published by the Commission last December, the envisaged initiative could take three forms.
The first would be to make no changes to the existing European legislative framework, but to “continue to monitor its implementation” while implementing the non-legislative measures on gender-related violence contained in the European Strategy for Gender Equality (see EUROPE 12440/7), such as the launch of a European network dedicated to the prevention of such violence.
The second option would be to adopt these non-legislative measures and to accompany them with “targeted legislative measures in specific areas”, says the Commission.
The third and most ambitious would be a legislative initiative on preventing and combating gender-based and domestic violence that would establish binding minimum standards in areas of EU competence.
Istanbul. Whichever option is chosen, the Commission assures that this initiative will share “the same objectives as the Istanbul Convention” - the Council of Europe’s Convention on Violence against Women.
Six Member States as well as the EU itself are still refusing to ratify it (see EUROPE 12609/5), a stumbling block raised in most of the 62 remarks already made to the Commission on its roadmap.
The Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, therefore made a commitment to take measures equivalent to those provided for in the Convention if this accession remains blocked in 2021. This should be made possible by the initiative in preparation. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)