"Too many women in Europe are battered and killed by their partner or former partner," Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President Lluís Maria de Puig said in a statement on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women held yesterday. To "put a stop to this repeated, widespread violation of human rights," he added, "national parliaments must pass the requisite laws." "At European level, there is an urgent need to strengthen protection for victims, persecute those who perpetrate violence and take measures to prevent it." Then Mr De Puig reiterated PACE’s unanimous call, made on 3 October, to the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers to draft "a convention to combat the most serious and widespread forms" of this violence "in particular domestic violence and forced marriages." Just before Spain assumes the presidency of the Council of Europe, recent developments in Spain in combating violence against women and the Council of Europe convention project will be at the centre of a meeting between PACE members and Spanish Equality Minister Bibiana Aido Al magro in Madrid on 27 November 2008. ” ” ” ” ” “
