A preventable death? Addressing protection gaps in the Council of Europe's human rights framework on femicide: a comparative analysis of the Netherlands and Spain

Abstract

Femicide is the most extreme manifestation of violence against women and girls. Within the Council of Europe, the Istanbul Convention was drafted specifically to combat such violence. Despite these developments, femicide remains an urgent human rights concern throughout Europe. This raises the question of whether the human rights framework of the Council of Europe sufficiently protects women against femicides. By means of a doctrinal legal analysis, this thesis examines the adequacy of the approaches to femicide of both the Istanbul Convention and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. Case studies of Spain and the Netherlands illustrate how the framework is implemented in national jurisdictions. The research question is: “To what extent does the Council of Europe’s human rights framework provide adequate protection against femicide, and how are its strengths and limitations reflected in the approaches of Spain and the Netherlands?” The findings demonstrate that femicide is currently not sufficiently recognised in the Council of Europe. Without explicitly identifying femicide as a human rights issue, it is impossible to address its manifestations and root causes. The effective prevention of femicide requires a paradigm shift whereby gendered issues are no longer viewed in an androcentric way, and violence against women is not regarded as a private matter. Moreover, this thesis makes various suggestions as to how the existing framework of the Council of Europe can further incorporate femicide protection.