Strasbourg

The Platform of undersigned United Nations and regional independent mechanisms on violence against women and women’s rights (Dubravka Šimonovic, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; Hilary Gbedemah Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; Ivana Radačić, Chair of the UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice; Feride Acar, President of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence of the Council of Europe; Margarette May Macaulay, Rapporteur on the Rights of Women of the IACHR, Lucy Asuagbor, Special Rapporteur on Rights of Women in Africa and Sylvia Mesa, President of the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention), voiced its concern over patterns across various jurisdictions of the world that ignore intimate partner violence against women in determining child custody cases. These patterns reveal underlying discriminatory gender bias and harmful gender stereotypes against women. Ignoring intimate partner violence against women in the determination of child custody can result in serious risks to the children and thus must be considered to ensure and grant their effective protection.

The Platform members addressed this issue during the conference on “Women’s rights at the Crossroads: strengthening international cooperation to close the gap between legal frameworks and their implementation” hosted by the Council of Europe on May 24th 2019 in Strasbourg (France). In its follow up evaluation of the results, the Platform calls on States to pay particular attention to these patterns and to take the necessary measures to ensure implementation of international standards that require that intimate partner violence against women is thoroughly weighed in the determination of child custody.

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