MEPs vote ‘yes’ to EU accession to Istanbul Convention

The European Parliament voted on Wednesday in favour of the European Union’s accession to the Istanbul Convention aimed to prevent and combat violence against women, and called on the remaining six EU countries, including Lithuania, to ratify the international human rights treaty 'without delay.'

The EU’s accession to the Istanbul Convention does not entail that all the member states have approved the treaty automatically. The remaining countries would need to ratify it themselves, following their national procedures, so that women across the EU could be protected to the full extent of the Convention’s intended scope.