This article seeks to outline the impact of a separation/divorce of a woman from her husband on refugee status determination (RSD) in cases where women have experienced violence by their husband in their country of origin and/or after arriving in the receiving country. An overview of case law of the Austrian Federal Administrative Court will be provided and in the second part main gaps in practice are summarized.
Implementation of the Istanbul Convention in Finland: What is working well and what still needs to be fixed?
Finland signed the Istanbul Convention (IC) in 2011 and the ratification entered into force in 2015. The first country report to GREVIO was due in spring this year. Alongside Finland’s official report submitted by the state, 13 NGOs formed a coalition to produce a parallel report.(1) The report was coordinated by the two Finnish WAVE members: Federation of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters together with Women’s Line. In this article I will introduce some of the main points of the report, divided here into three core parts: structures for implementation, support measures and legislative problems.
Implementing the Istanbul Convention into Romanian legislation
Romania signed the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) in 2014 and ratified the Convention in 2016, which entered into force as of September 1st, 2016.
Through Law no.174/13.07.2018, the provisions of the Istanbul Convention were partially transposed. Provisions of art. 9 par. (1) lit. b) and c) and par. (3) lit a) and b) from the Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA, were published in the Official Journal of the European Union, L series , issue 315, November 14th, 2012.
From Istanbul to a Clash of Civilisations: A Story of a Hijacked Convention in Slovakia
In the beginning of the decade, everything seemed to go smoothly towards quick ratification of the Istanbul Convention in Slovakia. The Minister of Justice signed the Convention in Istanbul on the date of its opening for signature, being in fact among the first Member States of the Council of Europe to do so. Government experts in cooperation with NGOs elaborated a legal analysis and started to implement an entire array of complex legal amendments required by the Convention. Experts and NGOs expected a standard procedure − ‘business as usual’.
Slovakia has already had a decade-long history in the promotion of gender equality with the first governmental Gender Equality Strategy adopted back in 2009, and additionally two more action plans to combat violence against women. Although the progress was anything but significant, no one ever doubted the agenda of gender equality as such. Today, looking back to those times, it seems that Slovak people are living in a totally different country.
Trafficking and Vulnerability
Women are not vulnerable simply because they are women, nor do the women we support in our trafficking provision lack the capacity or the intelligence to make life choices. Many of these women come from societies that do not recognise their equality or view them as “lesser” human beings and they have been made vulnerable due to circumstances over which they have no control.
The impact of armed conflict on the situation of violence against women in the Ukraine
Violence against women and all forms of sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault, forced prostitution, and sexual slavery, are increasingly recognized as a facet of many recent conflicts, spanning from the European Balkans to African countries. Social and economic crises and breakdowns in the rule of law contribute to domestic violence also within the families of former combatants. This article gives an overview of the situation regarding gender-based violence (GBV) in the Ukraine caused by the war, which erupted in April 2014.
Solidarity in wartime – Ground to hold on to hope
“I see, I hear, I feel you”
Feminist work with women survivors of the war from the territory of the former Yugoslavia (1991-1999)
Women’s solidarity is a value cherished by feminists all around the world. During wartime, the need for solidarity is even more urgent. Some feminist activists working with women coming from warzones in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia knew this very well. We made a conscientious decision to collaborate with each other during wartime and afterwards. At the same time, a constant flow of self-organized solidarity was arriving from women in Europe towards the women activists in and near the war zones. This precious experience of women’s solidarity during wartime is the theme of this article. Solidarity is precious at all times, but in wartime, it represents ground on which you can sow the seeds of hope.
Trafficked women and girls among asylum seekers in Austria
The vulnerable situation of trafficked women and girls seeking asylum is widely recognized. Consequently, women and girls affected by trafficking are entitled to special procedural guarantees(2) and special reception conditions(3) during their asylum proceedings. In order to guarantee those rights, EU Member States have a positive human rights obligation to identify potentially trafficked women and girls among asylum seekers in a timely and effective manner.
The legal barriers affecting undocumented women in Italy
Miriam(1) is a young migrant woman who turned to a women’s anti-violence centre in Northern Italy to escape the violence perpetrated by her husband. Miriam held a residence permit for family reunification and had entered the shelter three months before her permit was due to expire. Miriam had two possibilities to remain in Italy. The first was to find a permanent job before her permit expired and show the authorities that she would earn enough money to maintain herself and her daughter. The second was to hope that the juvenile court would determine that she could obtain the custody of her child, who was born in Italy, and then extend her permit for family reasons.
The fathers’ rights movement and anti-feminism
The fathers’ rights movement has been around for more than a decade functioning as a loose network of advocates predominantly in the USA and throughout Europe, operating with the said mission of preserving the well-being of children by ensuring that family law frameworks are not discriminatory against fathers. Some in the fathers’ rights movement also stand for the lowering of child support payments and protesting against what they say are mothers’ frequently made up allegations of domestic violence.(1)
