Today, Monday 8 June, marks the three year anniversary of the UK signing the Istanbul Convention on violence against women in 2012.

Signing the Convention was an important step… in 2012. Three years have now passed and the UK Government has not managed to move from supporting this groundbreaking law in principle to actually making it law in the UK in practice by ratifying it.

A lot can happen in three years. And a lot has. At least 255,000 women have been raped over the past three years. Each year, an estimated 60,000 girls under the age of 15 have been at high risk of FGM. More than 300 women have been killed by a partner or former partner since 8 June 2012. And these figures only account for England and Wales. Despite how common violence against women is in the UK, ensuring women’s safety has not been a priority for the Government. Their failure to ratify the Istanbul Convention is further evidence of this.

The Istanbul Convention is the most comprehensive legal framework that exists to tackle violence against women. The Convention sets out exactly what countries need to do to address all forms of violence against women; from domestic, sexual, and ‘honour’-based violence to sexual harassment, stalking, FGM, forced marriage and forced sterilisation.

If the Government makes the Istanbul Convention law, it will have to take concrete measures to tackle violence against women, which cover prevention of violence, protection of women, and prosecution of perpetrators. They would be legally required to provide sufficient and appropriate services for women who have experienced violence, including refugees and sexual violence referral centres. At present, such services are in crisis. The UK Government would have to invest in tackling the root causes of violence against women through education, namely gender inequality, sexism and gender stereotypes. At the moment, such initiatives are rare and limited in reach. What is more, the Government would have to invest in training professionals and improving our prosecution system - two key areas where we are currently failing survivors, as a recent report has found.

The Government’s sluggish approach to guaranteeing women’s safety by making the Convention law is increasingly alarming. It is also becoming embarrassing because the UK is rapidly falling behind other countries that have ratified the Convention and is starting to look somewhat hypocritical as the Government’s work on tackling violence against women and girls abroad is not being matched back in the UK.

The good news is that the Istanbul Convention is already bringing about change in the UK. In preparing to make the Convention law in the UK, the Government has already updated our violence against women legislation on a range of issues – including on forced marriage, FGM, and coercive control (psychological domestic violence).

This is a great start. But it is not enough. Women deserve all of the guarantees the Istanbul Convention offers. The Government needs to finish what it started and make the Istanbul Convention law. And it needs to do so as a matter of urgency because without it, there is no long-term guarantee of the legislation, policies, and services needed to tackle violence against women. Until the Government make the Istanbul Convention law, women’s safety and their very lives will remain at high risk.

Raise your voice and call for change. I C change, do you? #ICchange