Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and
Eradication of Violence against Women
"CONVENTION OF BELEM DO PARA"
PREAMBLE
THE STATES PARTIES TO THIS CONVENTION,
RECOGNIZING that full respect for human rights has been enshrined in the American
Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
and reaffirmed in other international and regional instruments;
AFFIRMING that violence against women constitutes a violation of their human rights and
fundamental freedoms, and impairs or nullifies the observance, enjoyment and exercise of
such rights and freedoms;
CONCERNED that violence against women is an offense against human dignity and a
manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between women and men;
RECALLING the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by the
Twenty-fifth Assembly of Delegates of the Inter-American Commission of Women, and
affirming that violence against women pervades every sector of society regardless of class,
race or ethnic group, income, culture, level of education, age or religion and strikes at its
very foundations;
CONVINCED that the elimination of violence against women is essential for their individual
and social development and their full and equal participation in all walks of life; and
CONVINCED that the adoption of a convention on the prevention, punishment and
eradication of all forms of violence against women within the framework of the Organization
of American States is a positive contribution to protecting the rights of women and
eliminating violence against them,
HAVE AGREED to the following:
CHAPTER I
DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF APPLICATION
Article 1
For the purposes of this Convention, violence against women shall be understood as any act
or conduct, based on gender, which causes death or physical, sexual or psychological harm
or suffering to women, whether in the public or the private sphere.
Article 2
Violence against women shall be understood to include physical, sexual and psychological
violence:
a. that occurs within the family or domestic unit or within any other interpersonal
relationship, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence
with the woman, including, among others, rape, battery and sexual abuse;