A major breakthrough for women's rights in Europe

There’s been a major breakthrough for women's rights in Europe: the EU has finally put into force officially acceded to the Istanbul Convention - and this community played a big part in making it happen! [1]

The Istanbul Convention sets out legally binding standards that protect survivors and punish perpetrators. It’s a major step forward in ending violence against women. There's still a long way to go but we have taken a big step in the right direction.

But you know that this community never gives up. When we celebrate a victory, we’re already thinking about the next steps. And this agreement is not enough on its own, we need laws and concrete measures to make it a reality.

That’s why, days after this announcement, we traveled to Brussels along with hundreds of feminists to deliver 80,000 signatures to EU lawmakers demanding an ambitious law to fully protect women from violence.

We read the comments of the petition in front of our political representatives, we celebrated our victory by painting banners with members of this community and our partner organisation “The European Women's Lobby”. It was a real boost of energy and hope!

We have managed to secure the commitment to keep working on this issue of key people within the EU: from MEPs to high representatives of the European Commission, such as Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli.

There is a lot of work ahead and unfortunately some countries are trying to water down the content of the proposal, but we will not give up! This is only the beginning, soon we will deliver the signatures to the parliament in Strasbourg and **we will continue to fight until an ambitious law is passed. Together we will succeed. **