* This text was reproduced and reformatted from the text available at the Council of Europe website (visited Jan. 26, 2012) http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/convention-violence/convention_en.asp.

1 Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, May 12, 2011 [hereinafter Convention].

2 General Recommendation 19, Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 11^th Sess. (1992).

3 United Nations General Assembly Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, G.A. Res. 48/104, U.N. Doc. A/RES/48/104 (Dec. 20, 1993).

4 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, June 9, 1994 (entered into force Mar. 5, 1995). Other examples include the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the fourth World Conference of Women in Beijing and the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences, through UNCHR Resolution 1994/45. See Fourth World Conference on Women, Sept. 4-15, 1995, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, available at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform; see also Commission on Human Rights Res. 1994/45, 56th Mtg., U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1994/132 (Mar. 4, 1994).

5 Some of the seminal cases in this regard are Prosecutor v. Akayesu, Case No. ICTR-96-4-T, Judgment (Sept. 2, 1998); Prosecutor v. Delalic et al., Case No. IT-96-21-T (Int’l Crim. Trib. for the Former Yugoslavia Nov. 16, 1998); Prosecutor v. Kunarac, Case No. IT-96-23-T, Judgment (Int’l Crim. Trib. for the Former Yugoslavia Feb. 22, 2001)

6 UN Secretary-General, In-depth Study on All Forms of Violence Against Women, U.N. Doc. A/61/122/Add.1 (2006); and UNHRC, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Promotion and Protection of All Human Rights, Civil, Political, Economic, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Development, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/7/3 (Jan. 15, 2008).

7 Council of Europe, Recommendation 1681, Campaign to Combat Domestic Violence against Women in Europe (Oct. 8, 2004).

8 Council of Europe Task Force to Combat Violence against Women, Including Domestic Violence (EG-TFV), Final Activity Report, at 6, ¶ 1.2 (Sept. 2008). For a deeper discussion of this progression, see BonitaC.Meyersfeld, Domestic Violence and International.Law 82-85 (2010).

9 Gonzáles et al.(‘‘Cotton Field’’) v. Mexico, Judgment, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R., (ser. C) No. 205 (Nov. 16, 2009), 49 I.L.M. 640 (2010).

10 International Law Commission, Report of the International Law Commission on the Work of its Fifty-third Session: Draft Articles of Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, With Commentaries, 43, U.N. Doc A/56/10 (2001).

11 Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) et al. v. United States, Case 12.626, Report No. 80/11, ¶ 162 (Inter-Am. Comm’n H.R. 2011),availableat http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/decisions/2011/USPU12626EN.doc[hereinafter Lenahan].

12 The Convention has its roots in a number of initiatives by the Council of Europe (‘‘CoE’’), dating back to the 1980s and 1990s. In 1985, the Committee of Ministers of the CoE passed Recommendation No. R (85) 4 on violence in the family. See Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Recommendation No. R (85) 4 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on Violence in the Family (Mar. 26, 1985). This was followed, in 1990, by Recommendation No. R (90) 2 on social measures concerning violence in the family. See Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Recommendation No. R (90) 2 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on Social Measures Concerning Violence within the Family (Jan. 15, 1990). In 2002, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe produced a recommendation on the protection of women against violence. See Council of Europe, The Protection of Women against Violence, Recommendation (2002) 5 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on the Protection of Women against Violence Adopted on 30 April 2002 and Explanatory Memorandum (Apr. 30, 2002). 13 Convention, supra note 1, art. 5.

14 Velásquez Rodríguez v. Honduras, Judgment, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 2 (July 21, 1989). The due diligence standard was resuscitated by the first Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences, Radhika Coomaraswamy. See UNCHR, Preliminary Report Submitted by the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences, Radhika Coomaraswamy, in Accordance with the Commission on Human Rights Resolution 994/5: Further Promotion and Encouragement of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Including the Question of Programme ad Methods of Work of the Commission: Alternative Approaches and Ways and Means Within the United Nations System for Improving the Effective Enjoyment of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1995/42 (Nov. 22, 1994).

15 For a discussion of this standard, see Meyersfeld, supra note 8, at 151. 16 Opuz v. Turkey, App. No 33401/02 (Eur. Ct. H.R. June 9, 2009), 48 I.L.M. 909 (2009); see also Lenahan, supra note 11, ¶ 111.

17 See Lenahan, supra note 11, ¶ 58 (U.S. arguing that ‘‘the content of the due diligence standard . . . is substantively unclear’’).

18 Alwyn V., Freeman, The International Responsibility of States for Denial of Justice 380 (1938)Google Scholar. See UNCHR, Due Diligence Standard as a Tool for the Elimination of Violence Against Women—Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences, Yakin Ertürk, ¶ 15, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/2006/61 (Jan. 30, 2006).

19 Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, Explanatory Report, ¶ 59 (Apr. 7, 2011) [herinafter Explanatory Report].

20 Id.

21 Id.

22 Convention, supra note 1, arts. 20, 23, 26 & 30.

23 Explanatory Report, supra note 19, ¶ 57. 24 Article 37(2) requires parties to ‘‘take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that the intentional conduct of luring an adult or a child to the territory of a Party or state other than the one she or he resides in with the purpose of forcing this adult or child to enter into a marriage is criminalised.’’ Convention, supra note 1, art. 37(2).

25 Due Diligence Report, supra note 19, ¶ 301.b.

26 Amnesty International & Southall Black Sisters, No Recourse, No Safety: The Government’s Failure to Protect.Women From Violence (Mar. 2008).

27 Convention, supra note 1, art. 59.

28 Id. art. 60.

29 Meyersfeld, supra note 8, 284.

30 UNHCR, Executive Committee, Refugee Women and International Protection: Conclusions on the International Protect of Refugees, Conclusion No. 39 (XXXVI), U.N. Doc. A/AC 96/673 (Oct. 7-18, 1985). 31 UNHCR, Guidelines on International Protection: Gender-related Persecution within the Context of Article 1a(2) of the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, ¶ 9, U.N. Doc. HCR/GIP/02/01 (May 7, 2002).

32 Id. ¶ 15.

33 Id.

34 See Council Directive 2004/83/EC, art. 9(2)(f), 2004 O.J. (L 304) 12-23.

35 UNHCR, Annotated Comments on the EC Council Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 on Minimum Standards for the Qualification and Status of Third Country Nationals or Stateless Persons as Refugees or as Persons Who Otherwise Need International Protection and the Content of the Protection Granted (O.J. (L 304/12) (Sept. 30, 2004) (Jan. 23, 2005)).

36 Other countries have traversed similar approaches to domestic violence as a basis for asylum. For a discussion of such cases, including in the United Kingdom, see Meyersfeld, supra note 8, 284-88.

37 Convention, supra note 1, art. 60(1).

38 Id. art. 75(1).