Violence against women under international law: filling the gaps at international, regional and national levels

Abstract

The thesis “Violence against Women under International law: Filling the gaps at international, regional and national levels” aims at assessment of the gaps of legal regulation on protection and prevention of violence against women, focusing on procedural, conceptual and substantive challenges that arise at international, regional and national levels. First, the thesis focuses on the alleged normative gap of international law, and conceptual, as well as substantial problems of the legal regulation on protection against violence at the level of international law, and critically assesses the suggested draft UN Convention on violence against women (2015). The author suggests that the current text of the Convention does not sufficiently address the existing gaps. In the second part of the thesis, the author analyses the regional legal regulation on VAW, focusing on the aspects of protection and prevention in order to evaluate the extent of states’ due diligence obligations in these areas and critically assess the remaining gaps. The author provides insights on the ways that the complex regional system of European law could provide more comprehensive protection against VAW. Finally, the author analyses domestic compliance with international law, by focusing on the key problems in protection and prevention of VAW and evaluating the compliance of Lithuanian legal regulation on VAW against the international standards. The author provides recommendations on further development of the Lithuanian law, to ensure better protection of women against violence.