(Strasbourg) “Nothing could be further from the truth”. The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) said this in a statement in response to criticism of the Istanbul Convention. Indeed, the Strasbourg-based body reiterates its “concern about misconceptions surrounding the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence” which was named after the Turkish city where it was signed. The Convention is “the most comprehensive set of legally-binding standards to ensure every woman’s right to a life free from violence”. “It is gender-based violence that destroys family. And there is no ideology in the fact that the vast majority of victims of sexual violence are women and girls”. Furthermore, “stalking, sexual harassment, sexual violence (including rape), physical, and psychological abuse at the hands of intimate partners, forced marriage, female genital mutilation and forced sterilisation are traumatising acts of violence, and our convention works to uphold the basic human right of living without such violence”. The Istanbul Convention “works because it is so broad in scope. It requires, for example, funding for rape crisis centres, 24/7 helplines, domestic violence shelters, and counselling for domestic abuse victims. It ensures education on healthy relationships in schools. It requires strong prosecution tools against perpetrators, as conviction rates for rape, for example, are often far lower than for other crimes”. The Istanbul Convention, which has already secured 22 ratifications, is the first international treaty to define violence against women as “a form of discrimination” and to address it as “a phenomenon which women are exposed to for the simple reason that they are women”.