[2] On 12 March 2012, Turkey became the first country to ratify the convention, followed by 37 other countries and the European Union from 2013 to 2024 (Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece,[3] Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,[4] Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom).

It has adopted a number of resolutions and recommendations calling for legally-binding standards on preventing, protecting against and prosecuting the most severe and widespread forms of gender-based violence.

Moreover, the treaty establishes a series of offences characterized as violence against women and provides protective measures such as specialist support services (Art.

[19] The first ten members were elected in 2014: President Feride Acar (Turkey), First Vice-president Marceline Naudi (Malta), Second Vice-president Simona Lanzoni (Italy), and members Biljana Brankovic (Serbia), Françoise Brie (France), Gemma Gallego (Spain), Helena Leitao (Portugal), Rosa Logar (Austria), Iris Luarasi (Albania) and Vesna Ratkovic (Montenegro).

[20] Five additional members were elected in 2018: Per Arne Håkansson (Sweden), Sabine Kräuter-Stockton (Germany), Vladimer Mkervalishvili (Georgia), Rachel Eapen Paul (Norway) and Aleid van den Brink (Netherlands).

In 2015, it was ratified also by Finland, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia, and in 2016, by Belgium, San Marino and Romania; in 2017 by Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Norway, and Switzerland, in 2018 by Croatia, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg and Republic of Macedonia, and in 2019, by Ireland.

[29] On 1 August 2019, the Deputy Minister Kristinne Grigoryan of the Armenian Ministry of Justice released a clarifying statement on the convention, remarking that its purpose is the prevention of violence and not the redefinition of the family.

Assuming that the Venice Commission rules favorably, Armenia's ratification appears inevitable given the fact that an overwhelming majority of members of parliament support it.

[32] Discussions surrounding the ratification were also met with opposition from some members of the public, who accused the convention to be intended to legalize same-sex marriage and spread LGBT "propaganda".

[33] In November 2022, the European Union's ambassador to Armenia, Andrea Wiktorin, urged the Armenian government to speed up proceedings to ratify the convention.

The decision was quickly condemned by some government ministers, members of parliament, media groups and civic organisations, who suggested that the convention would eventually lead to a formal recognition of a third gender and same-sex marriage.

[38] Prime Minister Boyko Borisov cited the isolation of his GERB party, which was not supported even by its coalition partner, the far-right United Patriots.

In its decision, the Court identified a relation between previous Council of Europe documents against domestic violence and the expansion of transgender rights.

The government of Petr Fiala, on the other hand, postponed negotiations on the ratification of the convention, according to the Minister of Justice Pavel Blažek, to the end of January 2023.

[48] The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania welcomed the move, with Giedrė Purvaneckienė stating it will strengthen already existing laws in the country on violence against women.

On the other hand, the move was strongly protested by conservative groups, with MP Rimantas Dagys stating the decision was taken without consultations with the public.

[51] Conservative, Christian democratic, Roman Catholic, nationalist and far-right groups and parties in Slovakia have been opposed to the country ratifying the convention, especially because of its clauses concerning LGBT rights, which they portrayed as "extreme liberalism" that corrodes "traditional values" they felt needed to be protected.

[52][53] On 29 March 2019, one day before the 2019 Slovak presidential election, nationalist politicians forced through a parliamentary resolution asking Slovakia's government not to ratify the Istanbul Convention, in an effort to mobilise conservative voters to vote for Maroš Šefčovič instead of the progressive candidate Zuzana Čaputová, who had been supporting LGBT rights and women's right to abortion.

[54] Following the decision of Parliament, President Zuzana Čaputová sent a letter to the Council of Europe on 6 March 2020, informing it that the Slovak Republic could not become a party to the Istanbul Convention.

[55] On 20 March 2021, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced his country's withdrawal from the convention by a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Turkey.

[2] The withdrawal has been criticized both domestically and internationally, including by the opposition parties in the country, foreign leaders, the Council of Europe, NGOs and on social media.

The CoE Secretary-General Marija Pejčinović Burić described the decision as "devastating news" and a "huge setback" that compromises the protection of women in Turkey and abroad.

[57] US President Joe Biden described the move as "deeply disappointing", while the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged the authorities to reverse the decision.

[65] As of April 2023, the government in its large majority did not express interest in ratifying the Istanbul convention, with indifference to the issue among the ruling parties and claims that present laws already in place are sufficient.

[72] The Law and Justice government also criticized the treaty for stating that "culture, custom, religion, tradition or so-called 'honour' shall not be regarded as justification" for acts of violence against women.

[75] Prime Minister Tusk emphasized that the protection of women and children from violence should never be the subject of political bickering, but rather a matter of common concern.

[76] In 2011, the Ukrainian government (under president Yanukovych) was one of the authors and first signers of the Istanbul Convention, but tough parliamentary opposition prevented its implementation in subsequent years.

[76] Throughout the 2010s and the early 2020s, several Ukrainian organisations campaigned for better protection of human rights, pushing for ratification of the convention as a means of achieving that goal.

[76] On 6 December 2017, the Ukrainian Parliament and government, under President Petro Poroshenko, adopted several amendments to its Criminal Code, including consent-based definitions of sexual violence, in order to implement the Istanbul Convention.

"[82] According to Balkan Insight, criticism of the convention, which is strongest in Central and Eastern Europe and mainly by the far right and national conservatives, has little foundation in its actual content: "Using disinformation, populist rhetoric, and appeals to Christian and Islamic morality, [critics] have managed to reframe what is essentially a set of guidelines that creates 'a comprehensive legal framework and approach to combat violence against women', into a sinister attempt by Western Europeans to foist their overly-liberal policies on reluctant societies further east".