Shqip
English
Following years-long negotiations, on 14 May 2024, Directive (EU) 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence was adopted. This first European Union standard on criminalizing gender-based violence comes just under a year after the EU’s historic decision to accede to the revered 2011 Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, commonly known as the Istanbul Convention, taking its place as the 38th Party, alongside Member States and the Republic of Albania. Focusing on substantive criminal law, this article aims to present and analyze the main provisions introduced by Directive 2024/1385 and how they compare to their counterparts in the Istanbul Convention. The article also highlights the areas for improvement in Albanian criminal law in addressing gender-based violence, considering acquis harmonization obligations in the context of the EU accession process, and in light of the upcoming new penal code. The analysis concludes by highlighting both strengths and shortcomings in these two international standards. While putting an emphasis on gender-based cyberviolence is a step forward for the Directive, excluding the promised consent-based model for rape and sexual harassment definitions from its adopted text is undoubtedly a step backward compared to the Istanbul Convention, making the former’s scope limited despite its broad title, especially considering the latter’s relevant provisions are not applicable to the EU. The Istanbul Convention standard on addressing gender-based violence has been for the most part followed by Albanian criminal law, and so this paper recommends the preemptive transposition of Directive 2024/1385’s definitions in the law as well as surpassing the minimum standard of protection threshold.
