The Ukrainian Parliament - the Verkhovna Rada passed a Bill on June 20 ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Better known as the Istanbul Convention, it is the most far-reaching international treaty designed to set legally binding standards for governments in Europe for the prevention, protection, and prosecution of gender-based violence. According to official numbers, 259 deputies voted in favour of the bill, eight voted against it, 28 voted blank and 47 abstained. It will make a difference While the convention was first signed by Ukraine in 2011 - despite repeated calls from activists to ratify it - the government, for years, remained stubbornly mute on the subject and continued to delay its ratification because of opposition by religious and conservative groups over the term "gender" used in the document, as a recent article by Asami Terajima in the Kyiv Independent on Ukraine’s ratification makes clear. Ukraine in fact, came close to ratifying the convention in 2016 but failed after a majority in Parliament voted against it. As a result, until today, Ukraine was one of the 11 countries that had signed but never ratified the Istanbul Convention. However, the government’s recent decision to ratify the convention is a huge step forward for the protection of women and girls from all forms of violence, whether in Ukraine or abroad, and could not be more timely for a number of reasons. Gender-based violence To begin with, the risk of women becoming victims of gender-based violence in Ukraine has increased immensely over the course of Russia’s eight-year war. In fact, the increasing number of reports that have emerged since the beginning of Russia's invasion in late February 2022 only suggests that the Russian troops have been using rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war and instrument of terror to control civilians. These fears were further crystallised following Russian withdrawal from Bucha, when some nearly 20 women and girls were assaulted by forces in a basement, nine of whom became pregnant from the assault. Although, the Russian authorities have denied alleged sexual abuse by their troops, the truth is that women in Ukraine have been disproportionately affected by the war. And as the tensions continue to rise, the risk of gender-based violence will also be heightened, with survivors suffering more severe levels of abuse. The prompt implementation of the convention could thus equip the Ukrainian authorities to deal with these atrocities and serve to reassure the survivors and provide them with the confidence to seek justice.