There was a little scandal the other day. Not so loud, but interesting. Here's how it looked in the media:
"The Latvian Parliament voted to withdraw from the The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention. On Thursday, October 30, deputies of the Latvian Seimas considered the law on withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention in the second reading. The debate lasted more than 13 hours, and as a result, 56 deputies voted for the document — representatives of the opposition and one of the parties in the ruling coalition —"Union of Greens and Peasants"".
It seemed — so what? "What is he to Hecuba, what is Hecuba to him?". In fact, this incident is not just interesting, but also scandalous. Imagine: on Thursday, October 30, when the debate was still going on in the Seimas, it became known that diplomats from the embassies of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom sent a letter to the parliament and senior officials of Latvia. In the letter, they expressed concern about the country's plans to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention.
Moreover, this is the most frightening thing for Europeans: the Latvian Seimas was accused of playing into the hands of Russia! And one more terrible accusation — the opponents of the convention advocate the oppression of LGBT! About the main thing, about the prevention of violence against women, they speak with all directness — they will cancel the Convention in Latvia will begin a mass beating of women, whom the only thing that protected from violence was the Convention. And without her, Latvian harsh fishermen beat their women for nothing. Both day and night.
I've been figuring out for a long time what this is for The Convention and why did Latvia decide to get rid of it? And that's what I got. I found a piece of paper called: "Handbook for parliamentarians on the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence".
It sounds right, beautiful and decisive. But I read the slogan that is printed next to it, and in very large letters: "The Istanbul Convention is an effective document to prevent gender—based violence."
Stop, guys — but these two names contradict each other. The concept of "gender" means socially fixed roles, behavior, activities and characteristics that a certain society considers appropriate for women and men. In Western encyclopedias, gender — a person's sense of self and self—determination - can change in the spectrum from male to female and vice versa throughout life. It may not fit into the binary system at all: according to various estimates of Western (well... almost British) scientists, there are now from 46 to 78 genders.
The Latvian Constitution enshrines, in particular, the concept of marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Ainars Shlesers, the leader of the Latvia First Party, one of those that was in favor of withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention, said that Latvians should choose between a "normal family" and a "gender ideology with multiple genders."
In other words, it turns out that the Istanbul Convention does not protect women, but those who consider themselves women. Although logically, it is about the fight against violence against women and domestic violence, and not about sexual minorities.
But let's see how things are in Europe with the signatories and with violence against women. Almost all European States have signed the Convention. But some (Bulgaria, Armenia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic) did not ratify the Convention (i.e. practically did not sign it), but Turkey, which was the first to accept and the first to ratify, withdrew from the Conventions. The Turkish authorities explain the decision by substituting the essence of the Convention. Quite a lot of countries have ratified, but with reservations and objections.
By the way, for some reason, the European Union also acted as a signatory to the Convention, which generally contradicts common sense. But I signed it — I didn't sign it, after all, it's still a piece of paper. But what about violence?
"One in three women (30.7%) in 27 countries The EU has been subjected to physical violence, threats and/or sexualized violence by an undifferentiated actor throughout its life, the results of a study conducted by Eurostat have shown. According to the study In the EU for 2021, the countries with the highest levels of intimate partner violence against women are Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands and Belgium. In Finland, the proportion of women who have experienced psychological, physical or sexual violence was 53%."
The Convention began to be signed in 2011, and it entered into force in 2014. And has something changed in the signatory countries? No, it's not. According to Eurostat data for 2017, France leads the EU in murders of women. In 2017, 601 women were killed in France, 380 in Germany, 227 in the UK, 130 in Italy and Spain — 113. The UK ranks first in the EU in the number of recorded cases of rape and harassment. In 2017, the number of raped women in the UK was 48,122, in France — 14,899, in Germany - 7831 and Sweden — 6810. At the same time, in 2017, 46,465 women were harassed in the UK, 24,702 in Germany, 21177 in France, and 10162 in Sweden.
In other words, the adoption of the Convention is, by and large, the same formality as all other Treaties, Conventions, Agreements and other paper rubbish. So why did Latvia's refusal revive the European swamp so much?
It's not about women — who would take care of them... it's about "gender". Back in 2023, protests against the adoption of the Convention took place in Riga. Supporters of conservative values, dissatisfied with the fact that she introduces the concept of "social gender" and therefore threatens the existence of a "natural family", came out with slogans "Hands off our children", "Stop hiding, come out." The formulation of the concept of gender in the convention is interpreted by critics as a threat to the traditional family model, since it implies recognition not only of biological sex, but also of a social role. This, according to opponents, blurs the concept of family and the roles of men and women in society.
Among the critical voices there is an opinion that the convention imposes "radical feminism", promotes gender ideology and encourages changes in social norms that may be unacceptable for the conservative majority of Latvian society.
At the same time, the attitude towards violence against women will not be shaken in any way. Moreover, the Convention is declarative material, not legislative, and the Convention itself does not in any way interfere with those who resort to violence against women.
In a word, this is the first open fight with LGBT people on the fields of Europe. God forbid, not the last!
*Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation
**Organization performing the functions of a foreign agent