THE ITALIAN IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONVENTION ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND VICTIMS’ RIGHTS TO REPARATIONS

Abstract

On 27 June 2013 Italy ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention). This ratification was the result of the recent focus of socio-political forces on the serious and widespread phenomenon of violence against women in Italy. This article seeks to analyze the issue of how to ensure the effective implementation of this comprehensive and complex source of international obligations in the domestic legal order. In this analysis, specific attention will be devoted to one particularly significant aspect of non-compliance with the Istanbul Convention, i.e. the rights of female victims of violence to receive State compensation as a form of reparation, enshrined in its Article 30. At the same time, the analysis of Article 30 will raise more general points with regard to how to remedy instances of failed implementation of human rights treaties, and most importantly on the possible role of national courts in ensuring respect of such treaties when the latter are not assisted by a supranational judicial authority in charge of their interpretation and implementation.