Reservations and declarations under the Istanbul Convention

Reservations and declarations play an important role in the Istanbul Convention. So far almost half of the forty-five states (and the European Union) that have signed the Convention have decided to formulate a reservation and/or an interpretative declaration. Some states have objected to the reservations and declarations. Against this background, this chapter summarizes the evolution of the international law governing reservations to human rights treaties, and presents the partially unique system of reservations established by the Istanbul Convention. The chapter also analyses and critically appraises states’ practice under the Convention. Special attention is given to the practice of some states (Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland) to formulate vaguely-worded interpretative declarations with reference to domestic law and comes to the conclusion that the Convention’s silence on this issue is most unfortunate.