Zelenskyy Suggests Rada Ratify Istanbul Convention

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested that the Verkhovna Rada ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (known as the Istanbul Convention).

The corresponding bill was registered on the Rada website on June 18 under No. 0157, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

The Istanbul Convention is an international agreement of the Council of Europe against violence against women and domestic violence, opened for signing in Istanbul (Turkey) on May 11, 2011, today signed by 46 countries and the European Union, ratified by 35 countries.

Ukraine signed the convention in November 2011.

The Convention provides for the protection of women from all forms of violence, the prevention, prosecution and elimination of violence against women and domestic violence also against men and children.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Zelenskyy in December 2021 advocated discussing the ratification of the Istanbul Convention with the participation of representatives of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, after the council expressed concern about the possibility of Ukraine joining the Istanbul Convention for fear of popularizing same-sex relations in connection with the use of the term "gender" in it.