International Agreements and Legal Framework 

Key International Instruments on Violence against women and girls 

  1. EU Directive (EU) 2024/1385 on Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence 
  • Adopted on May 7, 2024, this directive establishes a comprehensive framework for preventing and addressing GBV in the EU. Until 2024, there was no specific EU legislation addressing violence against women and domestic violence.  
  • Criminalises for the first time female genital mutilation and cyber violence in the EU sphere. 
  1. The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention)  
  • Sets international standards for preventing GBV, protecting victims, and prosecuting perpetrators. 
  1. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979) 
  • Recognises women’s rights and seeks to eliminate discrimination. 
  1. UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1993) 
  • Affirms GBV as a human rights violation. 

Key Gender-Inclusive International Instruments on GBV & Human Rights 

  1. EU Gender Equality Strategy (2020-2025) 
  • Aims to achieve gender equality across all member states. 
  1. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948) 
  • Provides a broad human rights framework that prohibits discrimination and violence based on gender. 
  1. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966) 
  • Protects individuals from discrimination, including gender-based violence, regardless of gender identity. 
  1. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR, 1950)  
  • Article 14: Prohibits discrimination, including on the basis of sex or gender identity. 
  1. EU Helpline for GBV Victims: 116 016  Provides free, confidential support.  

For more information and further readings on Gender-Based Violence and Restorative Justice, please refer to the following: 

Chan, J.B.L., Bolitho, J. and Bargen, J. (2015). Restorative justice as an innovative response to violence. SSRN Electronic Journal 10.2139/ssrn.3439193.   

Gavrielides, T. (2024). A Practitioner’s Guide To Implementing Restorative Justice. Intimate Partner Violence & Domestic Violence. London: RJ4All Publications, ISBN: 978-1-911634-99-7.  

Gavrielides, T. (2023). “Domestic Violence and Power Abuse Within the Family: The Restorative Justice Approach“. In: Sturmey, P. (eds) Violence in Families. Advances in Preventing and Treating Violence and Aggression . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31549-7_18  

Gavrielides, T. (2021). Power, Race, and Justice: The Restorative Dialogue We Will Not Have (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003194576 

Gavrielides, T. (2019). Collapsing the criminal labels of domestic violence: A social and restorative justice approach, London: RJ4All Publications. ISBN: 978-1-911634-15-7.  

Gavrielides, T. (2017). 25 Restorative Justice case studies, RJ4All Publications: London. ISBN: 9781907641411.  

Gavrielides, T. (2016). “Repositioning Restorative Justice in Europe: The Victims’ Directive”, Victims & Offenders Vol. 11, Iss. 1, pp. 71-86.  

Gavrielides, T. (2015). “Is Restorative Justice appropriate for Domestic Violence cases?”, Revista de Asistență Socială, anul XIV, nr. 4/2015, pp. 105121.  

Gavrielides, T. (2015). “The Victims’ Directive and What Victims Want from Restorative Justice”, Victims and Offenders Journal, Vol: 10. Issue 2. pages 1-22. DOI 10.1080/15564886.2014.982778.  

Gavrielides, T. and V. Artinopoulou (2012). “Violence against women and restorative justice”, Asian Journal of Criminology, Volume 8, Issue 1, pp 25-40 ISNN 1871-0131.   

Gavrielides, T. (2017). “Structured & Unstructured Restorative Justice: The case of violence against women” in Halder, D. and Jaishankar, K. (Eds). Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Overcoming Violence Against Women, Pensilvania: IGI Global Publications, 106-120.  

Gavrielides, T. (2015). “A Human Rights Vision of Restorative Justice: Moving Beyond Labels”, in Gavrielides, T. Offenders no More, New York: Nova Science Publishers. Pages 19.39. ISBN 978-1-63483-681-4.  

Knowles, G. (2013). Evaluating law reform using victim/survivor stories from the criminal justice system. Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand 5(2):40–47.  

McGlynn, C., Westmarland, N. and Godden, N. (2012). ‘I just wanted him to hear me’: sexual violence and the possibilities of restorative justice. Journal of Law and Society 39(2):213–240. Https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2012.00579.x.  

Pelikan, C. (2010). On the efficacy of victim-offender-mediation in cases of partnership violence in Austria, or: Men don’t get better, but women get stronger: Is it still true? Outcomes of an empirical study. European journal on criminal policy and research, 16(1), 49-67.