“On the international day for the elimination of violence against women, I reaffirm Iceland’s steadfast commitment to gender equality and the protection of the hard-earned progress concerning the human rights of women and girls. Together, we must combat all forms of violence against women and girls everywhere, always. Unfortunately, it is the most pervasive human rights violation around the world and occurs in all Member States of the Council of Europe. While important gains in the fight against gender-based violence have been made over decades of activism, new forms of violence have however emerged.”

The Council of Europe gender equality division organised the annual training session for Gender Equality Rapporteurs  (GERs) entitled “Ambassadors for change: Training course on gender equality and gender mainstreaming”.
The training aimed to provide GERs with theoretical knowledge on gender equality-related concepts and standards, whilst also giving practical insights on issues such as gender analysis, gender-sensitive communication, and how to deal with resistance to gender equality.

The Council of Europe Recommendation on preventing and combating sexism, adopted in 2019, is now available in 26 languages, in addition to the official English and French versions.
The Campaign “Sexism: See it. Name it. Stop it!” aims at raising awareness about the causes of sexism and its various forms, and at identifying ways to prevent and combat it. The action page on sexism is now available in 28 languages.

The gender equality cooperation unit under the COVAW project supported the better protection of refugee, migrant and asylum-seeking women and girls, through translations of the Recommendation on protecting the rights of migrant, refugee and asylum seeking women and girls, and the Guidance on gender-based asylum claims and non-refoulement: Articles 60 and 61 of the Istanbul Convention. The Recommendation is now available in 7 languages, in addition to the official English and French versions. The study is available in 7 languages (see below under ‘Just published’).

On 9 December, the project brought together representatives of Armenian state institutions and key professionals to  present the results achieved.  The project aimed at strengthening the capacity of key stakeholders involved in preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, protecting victims, and prosecuting the perpetrators of violence, as well as advancing gender equality. It shared knowledge about the relevant European standards, in particular the Istanbul Convention, and its implication for the national policy and legal frameworks.

Capacity-building sessions on multi-agency cooperation in Azerbaijan continued on 3-4 November. 15 participants were provided with the essential tools to draft a multi-agency cooperation plan for combating violence against women and domestic violence.
From 29 November to 1 December, an Azerbaijani delegation went to Spain to exchange promising practices to hear about the Spanish experience of implementing the Istanbul Convention. In addition, a new tool has been prepared under the project to promote peer exchanges across institutions. A new brochure has been also developed showcasing the convention’s potential benefits for Azerbaijan.

For the second year in a row, the Council of Europe Office in Georgia was one of the partners of DataFest Tbilisi 2022 in November. The aim was to raise awareness among representatives from various sectors, including policy makers, industry professionals and technical experts, on the fact that AI systems are not objective, and that they are mapping the biases that exist in society at technological level.
Projects on “Promoting an integrated approach to end violence against women and reinforcing gender equality in Georgia”, “Promoting the effective protection of equality and non-discrimination in Georgia” and “Supporting freedom of media and internet in Georgia” were present at this event with a stand offering participants information on violence against women and domestic violence, diversity and freedom of speech.

An assessment report on the alignment of laws, policies, and measures in Kosovo* with the Istanbul Convention was published, providing practical guidance to reinforce action against violence against women and domestic violence. It applies the methodology of the baseline evaluation procedure of GREVIO.
The project has supported the Ministry of Justice in developing the "Curriculum for the training of professionals working on programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence".  On 2 December, the curriculum was endorsed by the Ministry of Justice and is now an official document setting the basis for the establishment and development of perpetrator programmes in Kosovo*.

The project team participated in the second edition of the International Conference on preventing and combating violence against women and girls and domestic violence from 25 to 27 October: “We stand by our women and girls!”. On 8 November, the project held a seminar on the digital dimension of violence against women, moderated by La Strada Moldova. It gathered national authorities, civil society, and the private sector to identify steps to target online violence against women and violence against women that is facilitated by information technologies. On 9 December, the project held its mid-term steering committee meeting to present the progress made since its launch in April 2022, and its workplan for the year 2023.

The project awarded grants to four Ukrainian civil society organisations who provide vital support to women during war. Projects were successfully completed in October, focused on protecting and promoting women’s human rights during the war in Ukraine, and raising awareness about the Istanbul Convention.
On 23 November, the project organised an online international round table which brought together 60 participants who discussed implementation of the Istanbul Convention during armed conflict, and presented the new manual for Ukrainian mental health and emergency response professionals. Final achievements of the project were presented in the final Steering Committee meeting on 20 December. 

The project finalised several publications which will  allow legal practitioners, decision makers, and other interested parties stay up to date when it comes to European and international standards in the area of women’s rights and women’s access to justice. The research report “Understanding barriers to women’s access to justice and legal aid in Türkiye” and two handbooks on women’s access to justice in Türkiye and on strategic litigation in the area of women’s rights were prepared. In addition to these resources, six resources of the Council of Europe were translated into Turkish.
Additionally, an online course provides a comprehensive overview of women’s rights and gender equality standards, case-law laid down in international and European legislation, as well as standards for legal professionals and practitioners. In the frameworks of the EU/CoE joint action, 270 lawyers have been trained so far by a HELP certified tutor.

The launch event of the report “Impact of Covid 19 on Women’s Access to Justice” took place on 17 November 2022. It was a great opportunity for members of the Council of Europe Gender Equality Commission, national justice authorities, legal professionals, and representatives of civil society and academia to reflect on the implementation progress, at national level, of the Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2023, and more particularly its third strategic objective on ensuring equal access of women to justice.
New languages are available for the report of the online roundtable on the “Framework to measure access to justice including specific challenges facing women”. The report analyses the specificity of women’s access to justice, including the concept of access to justice in accordance with international and Council of Europe human rights standards and describes the role of governments in guaranteeing equal access to justice for all.