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.