Council of Europe
In the area of gender equality, the Council of Europe works on a broad range of issues. These include preventing men's violence against women and human trafficking, gender mainstreaming, equal gender balance and national mechanisms for gender equality. A gender equality commission will be established as part of an ongoing reform of the Council of Europe. The tasks of the commission will be to act as an advisory body to support gender mainstreaming in the Council of Europe, to ensure that the Member States can exchange best practices and to support ongoing gender equality work. In April 2011, the Committee of Ministers adopted the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The Convention was opened for signing on 11 May 2011, and Sweden signed the Convention the same day. The Convention, which aims to protect women from all forms of violence, contains provisions on preventive measures, protective measures for victims, substantive criminal law, criminal law procedures and international cooperation.
