Policy background The Istanbul Convention – extraterritorial jurisdiction
The "Istanbul Convention " is the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Article 1 sets out the purpose of the Convention as follows:
protect women against all forms of violence, and prevent, prosecute and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence;
contribute to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and promote substantive equality between women and men, including by empowering women;
design a comprehensive framework, policies and measures for the protection of and assistance to all victims of violence against women and domestic violence;
promote international co-operation with a view to eliminating violence against women and domestic violence;
provide support and assistance to organisations and law enforcement agencies to effectively co-operate in order to adopt an integrated approach to eliminating violence against women and domestic violence.
	The United Kingdom ("UK") Government signed the Convention on 8 June 2012 but has not yet ratified it. In most respects, the measures already in place in the UK comply with or go further than the Convention requires. A key element of the Convention is making sure that ratifying states can use their national law to prosecute offences required by the Convention when they are committed by their nationals or residents overseas. The legal term for powers to allow prosecution in the UK of offences committed by UK nationals or residents overseas is "extraterritorial jurisdiction". Taking such powers requires primary legislation.
	The courts in England and Wales already have extraterritorial jurisdiction for some of the offences required by the Convention (for example, female genital mutilation (by virtue of section 4 of the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003) and forced marriage (by virtue of section 121 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014)). However, the courts do not have extraterritorial jurisdiction for other offences required by the Convention (under Articles 33 to 39), and accordingly section 72 and Part 1 of Schedule 3 extend extraterritorial jurisdiction to the relevant offences to satisfy the requirements of the Convention. These included certain sexual offences and offences against the person.
	Similarly, the courts in Scotland also already have extraterritorial jurisdiction for some of the offences required by the Convention (for example, female genital mutilation (by virtue of section 4 of the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005), domestic abuse (by virtue of section 3 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018) and forced marriage (by virtue of section 122 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014)). However, the Scottish courts do not have extraterritorial jurisdiction for other offences required by the Convention (under Articles 33 to 39), and accordingly Part 2 of Schedule 3 to the Act contains provisions to give domestic effect to the extraterritorial requirements of the Convention in Scotland. These include certain sexual offences and the offences of stalking and assault.
	In Northern Ireland, the courts also have extraterritorial jurisdiction for some of the offences required by the Convention (for example, female genital mutilation (by virtue of section 4 of the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003) and forced marriage (by virtue of section 16 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2015)). However, the Northern Irish courts do not have extraterritorial jurisdiction for other offences required by the Convention (under Articles 33 to 39). Accordingly, section 73 and Part 3 of Schedule 3 to the Act contain provisions to give domestic effect to most of the extraterritorial requirements of the Convention in Northern Ireland. These include a number of sexual and violent offences.
	The Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017 requires the Government to lay an annual report before Parliament on progress toward ratification of the Convention. The fourth such report was laid before Parliament on 22 October 2020.