Zbigniew Ziobro has created a stir some through the european Union in announcing that Poland undertook steps to denounce the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women. The minister of Justice, truth, does not lie in the field of domestic violence or rape to go unpunished. This is not about it.
What he denounces, what are the "provisions to ideological character, ""harmful" [sic] contained in this convention of the Council of Europe, which Poland signed in December 2012 and ratified in August 2015, before the arrival of the ultraconservateurs of the PiS in power in October of the same year.
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More exactly, what bothers the Polish government, it is the "construction of the so-called gender-socio-cultural as opposed to biological sex," according to Zbigniew Ziobro, who will enter the ministry of the Family to start the process of removing. In the eyes of the ultraconservateurs of the Udder, there are two types recognized, the feminine and the masculine. All the rest is considered as a deviance ; and homosexuality is equated to pedophilia.
areas of "zero LGBT"
This is once more a catholic vision of traditional Polish society, which stands here against the LGBT community, which claims the tolerance and rights (marriage and adoption). The presidential campaign that just ended saw the re-election of president Andrzej Duda (PiS) against a liberal candidate, Rafal Trzaskowski (whose party is linked to the EPP, christian democrats). Their duel has focused in part on this theme cleaving within the Polish society. Mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski wants to make his city a place of tolerance, protecting homosexuals against discrimination, while nearly a hundred municipalities create "zones of zero LGBT" (one-third of the territory).
Trzaskowski was signed in February, the " Charter for LGBT + ". Through this commitment, he promises to create a "safe haven" to accommodate the homosexuals rejected by their families, to establish a follow-up to the violence of homophobic and "modernise" sex education, taking into account the genre, following the recommendations of the WHO.
Two items that do not go
It is this initiative that responds to the power through the declaration of Zbigniew Ziobro. That says exactly the Istanbul Convention, devoted mainly to the issue of violence against women ? In fact, two articles that upset the government in power at Warsaw : article 14, which commits the signatory States to take "actions necessary to include in the formal curriculum and at all levels of education educational materials on topics such as [...] non-stereotyped gender roles gender" ; and article 6, which stipulates that States " shall ensure that culture, custom, religion, the tradition or so-called "honour" shall not be considered as justification for any acts of violence covered by the scope of the present Convention ".
" We do not agree with the field related to ideology, which can lead to changes in the social, moral and cultural depths. These provisions can be counter-productive, and even lead to an increase in domestic violence, writes Zbigniew Ziobro. [...] We do not accept that we are commanded to change the education of children in schools, teaching them that sex is archaic and is just a socio-cultural context. We also reject the layer LGBT promotion of family relations, a point of view propagated by left-wing activists or homosexuals who want to translate their beliefs into a law that works. In addition, we do not believe that the religions and customs should be called into question as the main causes of domestic violence. "
A misunderstanding
To the defenders of the Convention, the PiS surinterprète the text. It is here question of the relationship of equality between girls and boys so as to avoid justifying the violence by a statute allegedly inferior women according to religion or tradition. The cause gay is never mentioned...
The Istanbul Convention provides, in any case, an in-house legal support to the opponents of the Udder, where the need to remove it. In addition, countries that have ratified the convention, it shall submit to the supervision of independent experts of the Council of Europe, which may analyze the correct implementation of the provisions of this convention. In short, the Udder is exposed to legitimate criticisms both internal and external, remaining in the framework of this agreement.
The european Union between two waters
Marija Pejcinovic Buric, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, has deemed it "alarming" ads of Zbigniew Ziobro. "If there are misconceptions or misunderstandings about the Convention, we are ready to clarify in a constructive dialogue, she added. Leave the Istanbul Convention would be very unfortunate and would constitute an important step backwards in the protection of women against violence in Europe. "
Poland is not quite isolated on this question of the interpretation of the text. Other european countries signatories of the Istanbul Convention refused to ratify it. This is the Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. To note that the european Union has signed the Istanbul Convention on 13 June 2017, but has not yet ratified it. On November 28, 2019, the european Parliament adopted a resolution which " condemns the attacks and campaigns against the Istanbul Convention, which is based on an interpretation intentionally erroneous, and a description that is false of its content to the public." For the moment, the ratification is blocked in the Council.
