Turkey, as the first country to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, submitted its instrument of ratification to the Secretariat of the Council of Europe on 14 March 2012.

Turkey has played a pioneering role during the negotiations of this convention, which is the first international instrument in the field of violence against women. The convention, opened for signature in Istanbul during Turkey’s Chairmanship of the Council of the Europe, is also referred to as the “Istanbul Convention.”

Turkey appended the first signature when the convention was opened for signature on 11 May 2011, ratified it in its parliament on 24 November 2011 before the other countries, and following the publication of the Decision of the Council of Ministers in the Official Gazette on 8 March 2012, International Women’s Day, Turkey has been the first country to submit its instrument of ratification to the Secretariat of the Council of the Europe on 14 March 2012.

The convention, which has been signed by eighteen countries until now, will enter into force when it is ratified by ten countries.