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The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) welcomes the European Commission’s (EC) initiative on preventing and combatting gender-based violence and domestic violence. By integrating in EU law the standards of the Istanbul Convention, this initiative is of the utmost importance as resulting legislation could save countless lives and prevent significant trauma and violence in the lives of women and girls across Europe.

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) recognises that this Directive proposal is a historic landmark and that it fills significant legislative gaps on violence against women and girls (VAWG) across the EU, especially on the legal definition of rape, the recognition of female genital mutilation as a criminal offence and the prosecution of key forms of online violence.

OII Europe highly welcomes the Commission’s proposal, as it addresses the widespread inequity still prevalent in our societies of which gender-based and domestic violence and the specific vulnerability of women and sex and gender minorities are one of the most horrifying aspects.

Intersex persons, i.e., persons born with a variation of sex characteristic, are at high risk of becoming victims of gender-based and domestic violence as well as bias motivated hate speech and hate crime. Intersex persons' personal accounts and an increasing number of research reports on the lived situation of intersex people, show the high degree of discrimination, violence and hate-motivated acts intersex…

EWL believes that the current EU framework on victims’ rights does not fully grant their rights to victims of male violence against women and girls (VAWG). EWL calls for a comprehensive EU framework to ensure equal levels of protection and access to justice for all victims of VAWG, including child victims, all centered in a Directive.