Parliament Approves EU Adoption of the Istanbul Convention
“The Istanbul Convention … undermines the genuine protection of women and prioritizes ideology over facts,” MEP Ladislav Ilčić (ECR) said. Ironically, the treaty meant to combat physical and sexual violence is the one that’s being forced on member states against their will.
Protesters following a woman’s murder in Riga, Latvia, in April 2023. Latvia is one of the six EU countries which haven’t yet ratified the Istanbul Convention, which MEPs say is counter-productive for stopping gender-based violence.
“The Istanbul Convention … undermines the genuine protection of women and prioritizes ideology over facts,” MEP Ladislav Ilčić (ECR) said. Ironically, the treaty meant to combat physical and sexual violence is the one that’s being forced on member states against their will.
The European Parliament voted to adopt the Istanbul Convention on combating gender-based violence after years of interinstitutional debates. If passed by the Council later, the Convention will apply to all member states, including the six countries which haven’t ratified it before, and who see it as a front for gender ideology and counter-productive for protecting women.
Ironically enough, the treaty that’s supposed to combat physical and sexual violence is the one that’s being forced on member states against their will.
The Commission first proposed the joint adoption of the Istanbul Convention in 2016, but the process was stalled because of the objections of the six member states which are not already members of the pact (Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic).
However, in a decision that goes against member states’ sovereignty, the EU Court of Justice ruled in 2021 that joining the Istanbul Convention would only need a qualified majority—and not a unanimous— decision in the Council, thus opening the way for the process to go ahead.
But, since all other member states have already ratified the convention before, the joint adoption by the EU itself serves the singular purpose of forcing the Istanbul Convention on the six outliers, whether they like it or not.
“We should remember that member states should exercise sovereignty in ratifying international conventions, rather than the EU imposing them,” the Spanish MEP Margarita Pisa said during the plenary debate a day earlier.
Conservative MEPs not only criticized the undemocratic way the convention is being adopted by the EU but also the pact itself, arguing that it’s actually a front for pushing gender ideology, and as such, is even counterproductive for combating violence against women.
“The Istanbul Convention’s explicit definition of gender as separate from biological sex undermines the genuine protection of women and prioritizes ideology over facts,” Ladislav Ilčić, another conservative MEP from Croatia said, adding that the treaty “has not proven effective in reducing violence against women in any ratified countries” either.
Furthermore, as the Polish MEP Patryk Jaki pointed out, making the principles of gender ideology enforceable by the convention can have complex negative consequences, “such as tragic outcomes for individuals and the eroding of traditional communities that protects people from violence.”
Yet, the majority of Parliament was clearly of a different opinion, as over 460 MEPs voted in favor of the adoption and only 81 against it. The rapporteur on the file, the Swedish Arba Kokalari (EPP), directly called out to the six remaining countries to ratify the convention individually as well. “It’s time for you to stand on the right side of history and to support women’s rights to life free of violence,” she said.
The divisive question of the Istanbul Convention was also addressed by the Hungarian MEP Balázs Hidvéghi in one of our recent interviews, in which he explained that there’s no debate about whether women need to be protected, but the treaty is not about that, but about
instrumentalizing the fight against violence to push a radically left-wing political agenda … pushing gender ideology and encouraging migration. We can clearly conclude that the Istanbul Convention has failed. Therefore, the attempt to impose it on the member states on behalf of the European Union is outrageous. Adopting the convention in this way is a violation of the principle of subsidiarity and it violates the competences of member states.
Tamás Orbán is a political journalist for The European Conservative, based in Brussels. Born in Transylvania, he studied history and international relations in Kolozsvár, and worked for several political research institutes in Budapest. His interests include current affairs, social movements, geopolitics, and Central European security. On Twitter, he is @TamasOrbanEC.
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