The Hungarian parliament on Tuesday rejected ratification of an international treaty to better protect women from violence, but seen by Viktor Orban's government as promoting "gender-destructive ideology" and "illegal migration".
Read also: Containment: domestic violence explodes in Russia
Adopted in 2011 by the Council of Europe, this text known as the “Istanbul Convention” is the first supranational tool to set legally binding standards with a view to preventing gender-based violence. Seven member states of the European Union (EU) have signed but not yet ratified: Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
His "ideological approach is contrary to Hungarian law and government beliefs," argued before the Assembly the deputy Lorinc Nacsa, from the ranks of the Christian Democrats, the minority partners of the coalition with the sovereignist party Fidesz of Viktor Orban having deposited the amendment. The Hungarian parliament and government are among those where women are least represented in the EU. Fidesz believes that all guarantees for the safety of women are already provided for by the legislator at national level.
Read also: Hungary and Poland still move away from common EU values
Furthermore, Hungary believes that the ratification of this convention, which it signed in 2014, would oblige it to grant asylum to refugees persecuted in their country of origin because of their gender or sexual orientation. After returning to power ten years ago, Viktor Orban enshrined marriage in the Basic Law as the exclusive union "of a man and a woman".
In 2018, he removed gender studies, an interdisciplinary field of research on social relations between the sexes, from the list of diplomas accredited in Hungary. A legislative amendment under discussion aims to define gender by "biological sex on the basis of birth and genome". Transgender and transsexual people, whether operated or not, would no longer be authorized to request a change of sex from the civil status, unlike today.
Read also: Hungary: Orban obtains full powers
Ratification of the Istanbul Convention would also “speed up and facilitate” immigration in general to Europe, according to Mr. Nacsa. Since the 2015 migration crisis, Hungary has erected a fence along its border with Serbia and Croatia.