The UK Government signed the Istanbul Convention on 8 June 2012. It still hasn’t ratified the Convention.
Disappointingly, the UK still remains in limbo between signing and ratification. This is despite repeated promises from Government. They claim that the delay has been caused by the fact that some of our laws still aren’t in line with the Istanbul Convention, and they want to change this before they finally ratify.
In particular, they want to ensure extra-territorial jurisdiction provisions are in place, and that the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also have the right laws in place.
The UK signed the Istanbul Convention in 2012 – so why do we need ratification?
Signing is the UK saying it has the INTENTION of complying in the future… but actually it doesn’t have full legal status. By ratifying the UK Government will be LEGALLY BOUND to comply with the Istanbul Convention.
Basically: no ratification, no law.
Once the Istanbul Convention is ratified, the UK will have made a lasting commitment to ending violence against women and girls. No matter who is in Government at any given time, all women and girls in the UK will be guaranteed the right to a life free from violence and free from the fear of violence.
If the Istanbul Convention has already changed some laws in response to signing, why do we need ratification?
It’s great that the UK Government is already taking action in order to meet the requirements of the Istanbul Convention. However, ending violence against women and girls is not being prioritised enough. Efforts to prevent violence against women and girls are inadequate, services providing survivors with protection and support are in crisis, and our prosecution system is failing survivors.
And until the Government has ratified the Istanbul Convention, it doesn’t have to tackle these problems because it is currently under no legal obligation to meet all of its requirements. It can just pick and choose which parts of the Convention it wants to focus on. We can’t afford to have a patchy approach to ending violence against women and girls. We need the full change. That’s why we need the UK to ratify the Istanbul Convention.
What’s the hold-up with ratification?
The Government says it wants to be fully compliant with the Istanbul Convention before it ratifies it. It says it already mostly is compliant, but with one exception: the issue of extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ). The Convention says that laws should apply to British citizens when they commit crimes against women abroad, as well as in the UK. This is the case for some crimes like murder, but not for things like rape. It also says it needs to make sure devolved administrations – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – are also compliant.
Wasn’t the Istanbul Convention ratified in 2017? What was the IC Act about?
In 2016/17 the IC Change campaign supported bringing the IC Act (full-name: Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (ratification of convention) Act 2017) into law. Drawing cross-party support and widespread support across the UK, this law put the Istanbul Convention firmly back on the agenda.
But we’ve still got some distance to go, unfortunately. The aim of the IC Act is to move Government back into action after 5 years of stalling. There are two main requirements: it has to report on progress towards ratification every year, and it has to produce a timetable – and stick to it. They produced their first progress report on 1 November 2017. You can see our response here.