The Netherlands needs to revisit the Istanbul Convention — now
In October 2025, new European and national legal frameworks came into force reinforcing how states must prevent, assess, and respond to domestic violence and violence against women.
At the centre of these obligations is the Istanbul Convention — a treaty the Netherlands has committed to, but which requires continuous alignment in practice, not just on paper.
The direction of travel is clear:
Safety decisions must be fact-based
Risk assessments must consider context, coercive control, and patterns
Authorities must avoid practices that reframe victims as risks
States must ensure that procedures themselves do not cause secondary harm
These are not abstract principles.
They are legal standards.
Recent legislative developments across Europe emphasise that:
Ignoring or minimising evidence is no longer acceptable
Procedural fairness is a safety requirement, not an administrative detail
Domestic violence responses must be trauma-informed and evidence-driven
Appearance, behaviour, or subjective impressions cannot replace facts
This raises an important question for the Netherlands:
Are current child protection and domestic violence response practices fully aligned with the Istanbul Convention as it is now being interpreted and enforced?
Because compliance is not measured by intention —
it is measured by outcomes.
When women report that facts are sidelined, risk is reframed, and credibility is assessed through appearance or behaviour, that is a signal worth examining.
Not to assign blame.
But to ensure the system is doing what the law now clearly requires.
The Istanbul Convention was designed to protect women from violence — including institutional responses that unintentionally perpetuate harm.
As legal standards evolve, so must practice.
This is not about reopening old cases.
It is about future safety.
And it starts by asking whether facts — not assumptions — are truly at the centre of decision-making.
Because without facts, there is no safety.
#FactsForSafety
#IstanbulConvention
#HuiselijkGeweld
#Kinderveiligheid
#ZonderFeitenGeenVeiligheid
#EUlaw