# RO2019EU / European high-ranking officials discussing domestic violence in Bucharest - Hoofdinhoud

The Minister of Labour and Social Justice, Marius Budăi, participated today at the International Conference “Europe without Violence Against Women and Girls - Perspectives of the Istanbul Convention: A New Horizon - Changing the Paradigm for All Decision Makers”, organized between 4-6 June, in Bucharest, by the National Agency for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (ANES) in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and Public Security of the Kingdom of Norway.

The event, organized under the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, is gathering policy makers, domestic violence experts and representatives of civil society and relevant institutions from France, Bulgaria, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, United States of America, United Kingdom, Spain and Finland, but also from various other European and international institutions.

Over the course of the three days, the participants will try to identify new solutions to eradicate domestic violence, a global phenomenon that has no social, economic or national boundaries.

The Minister of Labour and Social Justice, Marius Budăi, emphasized the importance that Romania has given to gender equality and domestic violence both during the exercise of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU i and over time.

“Over the last three years, Romania has undertaken an ambitious and comprehensive reform of domestic violence legislation and has consistently adopted measures to ratify and prepare the implementation of the Istanbul Convention. We are glad to share with you the progress made by our country in this field. We are convinced that we are on the right path, but we are fully aware that there is still much to be done. It is important for our horizon, as a country, to look at successful models and to know examples of good practices from other states and especially the lessons learned by them” stated Minister Marius Budai.

Romania is the 14th state that ratified the Istanbul Convention by Law no. 30/2016, and for the harmonization of the internal legislation with the provisions of the Convention two important laws were adopted: Law no. 178/2018 and Law no. 174/2018, which refers to the gender perspective, and to prevention and combating domestic violence, respectively.