21/06/2022 (Agence Europe) – Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, immediately welcomed the approval of the Istanbul Convention in the Ukrainian Parliament on Monday 20 June. Signed by Ukraine in 2011, this “Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence” will therefore be ratified very soon in the midst of the Russian invasion. The Secretary General congratulated the President, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Deputy Prime Minister, Olha Stefanishyna, and the members of the Verkhovna Rada, in particular Mariia Mezentseva, who heads the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as the Ukrainian personalities with whom she had discussed the ratification, which she had last addressed on 9 May during her visit to Kyiv. Once the official act is signed, Ukraine will become the 36th State Party to the Istanbul Convention. (VL)