Trends in the implementation of the Istanbul convention

Violence against women and domestic violence has attracted a lot of attention of the scientific community over the last 30 years. During that period, this topic assumed a very important place in all international agendas and was tackled by the most important international organizations and associations. The Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, i.e. the Istanbul Convention, is one of the basic international documents which has had an influence on numerous legislations of European countries in the field of gender equality and domestic violence. The aim of this paper is to show by a comparative method and through analysis and review of available literature the advantages of the Istanbul Convention and its importance for gender equality through a review of the literature, and also to point out the criticisms attributed to it. Research results have shown that the difference between sex and gender equality is a stumbling block and a serious objection in countries with traditional, nationalist and hard autocratic regimes. Also, most European countries have fully implemented the Istanbul Convention in their legislation and thus significantly contributed to gender equality and protection of women from abuse and domestic violence. The discussion shall focus on the importance of adopting a new convention or resolution at the level of the United Nations (UN), which would cover all contentious issues related to violence against women and domestic violence, and which would be binding on all members.