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Today, in the presence of the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Ms Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, Ambassador Paruyr Hovhannisyan, Permanent Representative of Armenia to the Council of Europe, signed the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention).

Armenia becomes the 45th member State of the Council of Europe to have signed the Convention. Out of the 47 member States of the Council of Europe, only Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation have not signed the Convention.

As the Council of Europe told Panorama.am, to assist legal professionals in Armenia in applying the national legislation in the area in line with the European standards, the CoE has launched in the end of December 2017 in Armenia the first training course for legal professionals on violence against women. The course was launched one day after the Armenian National Assembly adopted the first law aimed at combatting domestic violence.

The Istanbul Convention protects women against all forms of violence against them. It obliges states to prevent, prosecute and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence. The Convention also establishes a specific monitoring mechanism ("GREVIO") in order to ensure effective implementation of its provisions by the states parties.