The impact of the Istanbul Convention on the appointment of responsibility for domestic violence: gaps and inconsistencies

Abstract

The article dwells upon the current Ukrainian legislation, which is being changed both at the legislative and legal level in connection with ratification of international conventions and practice of the ECtHR, which is the source of criminal responsibility under the Law of Ukraine "On the implementation of decisions and application of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights". Although the Istanbul Convention was signed by Ukraine back in 2011, it was ratified only on February 1, 2022. However, over the past 5 years, the national legislation has been brought into line with the requirements of the Convention and the practice of the ECtHR, but the change of legislation must be in line with the national legislation. We analyzed these inconsistencies and conflicts, which, in our view, relate more to the responsibility for the act of domestic violence. The types of punishment and penalties do not correspond to the purpose of the punishment, which is studied in more detail in the article. Besides, a large number of repetition and recidivism shows that the purpose of punishment, namely the correction of the sentenced person, does not reach its goal. The judicial statistics concerning administrative and criminal responsibility over the last three years was analyzed. The analyzed data of the polled police officers who are responsible for the regulation of problems in the family related to domestic violence are presented. As a result, conclusions and proposals to the current legislation were developed to improve the situation in the appointment of penalties and punishment for domestic violence.