The protection of children from violence in the context of intimate partner violence/domestic violence and custody with special attention to the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention

WAVE: Vienna, 2022: In its report, WAVE states that the connection between violence against children and violence against women in the context of domestic violence—specifically the impact of intimate partner violence on children and issues of custody and visitation—is a critical topic that has gained increasing attention in recent years at national, European, and broader international levels. 

The document addresses the protection of children from violence in the context of violence against women and domestic violence, with a particular focus on issues related to custody, visitation, and related legal proceedings.

It provides a basic overview of key international norms and standards concerning domestic and intimate partner violence and children's rights in custody and visitation matters—including the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The report also examines in detail the content and implementation of relevant provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), and how these are applied in countries that have ratified the Convention.

The foundation for this analysis is the GREVIO Committee's evaluation report, specifically the Mid-term Review of initial GREVIO evaluation reports. This review covers 20 countries whose initial reports were published by December 2020. Since then, three additional national reports have been included in the analysis.

The document focuses primarily on Article 31 of the Istanbul Convention, which explicitly addresses custody and visitation issues. It also briefly touches on other provisions of the Convention that concern children or are particularly relevant to their protection from violence in the context of custody and visitation.

The first paragraph of Article 31 states that authorities must take into account all forms of violence covered by the Convention when making decisions about custody and visitation. This includes not only violence directly against the child but also violence against the caregiving parent who is not the perpetrator, and this must be considered when deciding on custody, visitation, or contact.

This means that a violent spouse cannot be granted custody or visitation rights simply by claiming that "he never did anything to the child, only beat his wife." A child's testimony about violence and the impact of such violence on the parent or close caregiver constitutes a form of violence against the child and a threat to their mental well-being

https://wave-network.org/wp-content/uploads/WAVE_Child-Custody-and-Visitation-rights.pdf