We’re delighted to say that yesterday the UK Government ratified the Istanbul Convention on violence against women.

This is a historic moment for women and girls across the UK. The landmark decision is set to improve women’s lives for generations to come, helping to ensure better protections and support for survivors of violence across the UK.

For eight long years we’ve been campaigning as a coalition with over 80 women’s sector organisations, experts, parliamentarians, volunteers and individuals, and we’ve finally got there. We couldn’t have done this without the incredible help from our supporters and the coalition.

We hope that in the months that follow survivors will be provided with greater protection, justice, and support, - and that vital services like helplines, rape crisis centres, counselling services and refuges will be protected.

Despite this big step forward, the news is bittersweet. In May, the Home Secretary, Priti Patel announced that the Government would ratify the Convention but opt out of two key articles, which include providing life-saving support for migrant women.

Today the Government announced that they will continue with this approach and opt out of articles 44 and 59. Over the past few months, we’ve been calling for this decision to be reversed to ensure support for all women.

In May, we wrote to the Home Secretary, alongside over 80 other organisations, urging the Government to ratify the Istanbul Convention without reservations. On 8 June 2022, the tenth anniversary of the Government signing the Istanbul Convention, 60 cross party MPs and peers publicly called for the Government to ratify without reservations through our parliamentary event.

We’re deeply concerned to hear that the Government are persisting with this approach. With these reservations in place, the protection and safety that the Convention brings will not apply to all women and migrant women in particular will be denied life-saving support.

Hannana Siddiqui, Head of Policy and Research at Southall Black Sisters said:

“The reservation creates a two tier system where some migrant victims are not afforded the same protection from domestic abuse as non-migrant victims as the fear of deportation prevents many from leaving abusive relationships. All women have a human right to protection from abuse.

Despite the welcomed ratification of the IC, the reservation would continue to present a stark choice to many migrant women: domestic abuse or deportation and destitution?”

Celebrate with us

Join us in celebrating this huge step forward by sharing our post on social media.

In the coming months, we’ll be supporting the work of Southall Black Sisters (@SBSisters) and Latin American Women’s Rights Service (@lawrsuk) on this.

Please follow and support these organisations as they call for the reservations to be removed and for migrant women to be included in the support.

Next steps

In the coming months, we’ll be working with the IC Change coalition and Southall Black Sisters and Latin American Women’s Rights Service to support their work on this.

We are incredibly grateful to every individual, organisation, MP, peer and journalist who’s supported the campaign and helped to get to this point.

You’ve helped us move towards a safer world for women in the UK.