Activists, MPs demand ratification of CoE domestic violence convention at Parliament

Budapest, February 1 (MTI) – A small group of activists and opposition politicians gathered to demand the ratification of the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on preventing and combatting domestic violence in front of Parliament on Wednesday morning.

The demonstration was held to coincide with the meeting of parliament’s justice committee to decide on submitting an initiative on the convention’s ratification to the assembly.

Bernadett Szél, the co-leader of LMP, said it was yet again up to the committee to decide whether or not “to axe” the initiative, “as it had been the case several times before”.

“We won’t let that happen again,” she said.

Zsuzsanna Szelényi of Együtt said domestic violence in Hungary went unnoticed by those holding power.

Others addressing the gathering called it a common phenomenon today that it is the victim, not the abuser who must go into hiding.

They stressed that the remedy of this situation was in the Istanbul Convention requiring signatories to provide for victim protection.

Hungary was among the 43 states to sign the convention, in 2014. Twenty-three countries have already ratified the document.

Source: MTI