A member of radical feminist group Femen staged a topless protest in front of the president's office in Kiev on Wednesday demanding that Ukraine ratify the Istanbul Convention aimed at preventing and combating violence against women. "They rape me! Enough violence!" shouted the young woman as she stood on a bulbous sculpture in front of the presidency. The woman was wearing only panties and a wreath on her head despite near-freezing temperatures. Written in marker across her body were the words "Istanbul Convention" and "Demand". The so-called Istanbul Convention characterises domestic abuse as a violation of human rights. Ukraine signed the Istanbul Convention in 2011 but has not ratified it. A second Femen activist on Wednesday helped the woman onto the sculpture, from which police officers pulled her down before wrapping her in a blanket. The Femen activist group, notorious for their topless protests across Europe, was founded by a small group of Ukrainian women in 2008 to tackle issues like sexism, domestic violence and abortion. The protest action took place on the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Two-thirds of Ukrainian women surveyed by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Ukraine (OSCE) in 2019 said they had experienced psychological, physical or sexual violence at the hands of a partner or non-partner since the age of 15. Kiev in recent years has adopted laws to protect victims of domestic violence but as a result of loopholes perpetrators often escape punishment, rights groups say. ant-osh/emg/lc