Ireland’s signing of the Istanbul Convention is “a historic day” in fighting violence against women, the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) has said.

“Today women and men across Ireland are celebrating the success of this campaign,” said the council’s director Orla O’Connor, who added that its campaign attracted over 2,300 emails that were forwarded to TDs calling on them to support the signing.

“The Istanbul Convention is a blueprint for best practice in the area of violence against women. It is an opportunity for Ireland to raise to the challenge of violence against women and meet the scale of the problem.”

O’Connor said that one in five women experience domestic and/or sexual violence. “These are horrendous crimes which cause devastation to the lives of women, children and communities,” she added.

“A new National Strategy on Violence Against Women is currently being drafted and presents an opportunity to be ambitious in our approach and deliver the necessary resources to implement the Istanbul Convention.”

According to the NWCI, domestic violence should be made a crime in its own right and stalking will need to become a criminal offence as part of a new strategy to combat domestic violence.

Gardaí, meanwhile, “must be equipped with the necessary structures, personnel and resources to provide adequate support to survivors and ensure perpetrators are pursued to arrest and conviction.”