Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence
(asked on 2nd September 2022) - View Source
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 17 May 2022 on Ratification of the Istanbul Convention, HCWS34, whether her Department plans to introduce safeguards to protect migrant women from gender-based violence in the context of the decision to apply a reservation to Article 59 of that Convention.
On 21st July the UK ratified the Istanbul Convention sending a strong message to women and girls across the UK, and around the world, that the Government is committed to tackling VAWG. The UK applied two reservations, including one on Article 59 which relates to support for migrant victims of domestic abuse.
The last annual progress report on ratification of the Convention confirmed that the UK’s position on Article 59 is “under review” pending the results and evaluation of the Support for Migrant Victims (SMV) Pilot Scheme. The Government will make a longer-term decision about the UK’s position on Article 59, and whether the reservation on that article should be maintained or withdrawn, in the light of the findings of the Support for Migrant Victims Scheme pilot and wider policy considerations. Therefore, we decided to apply a reservation on Article 59, which nine other countries have also done, to enable the UK to ratify as soon as possible.
The Government is committed to supporting all victims of domestic abuse, including migrant victims, regardless of immigration status. Therefore, in the interim, £1.4 million of funding has been allocated in 2022-23 to continue to fund support for migrant victims of domestic abuse.