Domestic violence continues to be a persistent and pervasive problem across society, affecting almost 1 in 3 women and costing the economy an estimated £23 billion per year. Through our work with adults, young people and children, we witness on a daily basis the devastating impact domestic violence has on the lives of its victims.
Article 16, in particular, embeds domestic violence perpetrator programmes, run in coordination with specialist support services, as part of the wider strategy to prevent violence against women and girls.
Increasing the safety of victims is at the heart of what we do and perpetrator programmes play an important part in the quest to end domestic violence.
We therefore ask the UK government to keep its promise to ratify the Istanbul Convention and show a genuine commitment to tackling violence against women and girls.