The Council of Europe says 13 countries have signed a convention aimed at combating violence against women.
Council spokesman Can Fisek says the convention was signed on Wednesday by Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the 47-member council in Istanbul.
The next step is for the parliaments of the signatory nations to ratify the treaty's guidelines, which are designed to strengthen the prevention and prosecution of violence against women.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the convention. It says current laws to protect women often exclude certain groups, including divorced women or female asylum seekers, and that enforcement is often lax.
