Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in Europe and Asia

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the evolution of the protection of women’s rights in Europe and Asia. The chapter will focus on violence against women and on trafficking of women, on which two recent conventions, respectively in the European and Asian systems, have been adopted. We are referring to the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, concluded in 2011 and entered into force in 2014 (Istanbul Convention), and to the ASEAN Convention against trafficking in persons, especially women and children (ASEAN Convention against trafficking), opened to signature in 2015 and only recently entered into force.