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Federal Minister of Women Franziska Giffey
Photo: Frederic Kern / imago images / Future Image
On the tenth anniversary of the Istanbul Convention, Federal Family Minister Franziska Giffey (SPD) called on the 47 member states of the Council of Europe to ratify the legal norm.
In a joint letter from Giffey to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejcinovic Buric, it says: "For the next ten years - and we hope much sooner - we are aiming for all member states of the Council of Europe to become contracting states." Giffey practiced on opponents of the agreement sharp criticism.
According to the Council of Europe, the Istanbul Convention is the first legally binding international instrument that creates a comprehensive legal framework to protect women from all forms of violence - from marital rape to female genital mutilation.
34 countries have ratified the agreement, in Germany it came into force in February 2018.
Ten years after the convention was adopted, "obstacles and challenges" remained, Giffey said.
For example, due to the corona restrictions, an increase in domestic violence was recently observed.
There are also "political movements" that mobilize "flimsy allegations" against the convention.
Of the 47 Council of Europe states, only Russia and Azerbaijan have not signed the convention.
Numerous signatories have not yet ratified the agreement.
There is considerable resistance in Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia, for example, with reference to passages on the rights of sexual minorities that allegedly violate “traditional values”.
Agreements in Turkey and Poland under attack
In Turkey, women's rights groups accuse the government of failing to implement a law to protect against domestic violence that was passed on the basis of ratification of the convention.
Conservative groups in Turkey claim the law promotes homosexuality and "destroys" the unity of Turkish families.
As early as 2018, the Council of Europe reprimanded Turkey for its handling of women's rights and attested the country a “completely distorted understanding of violence”: In Turkey, rape is often seen as a misconduct by women who thereby “dishonored” the family.
Most recently, the AKP wanted to pass a bill that retrospectively declares child abuse exempt from punishment if the perpetrator marries his victim.
In Poland, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro has been trying for years to withdraw the ratification of the Convention, which happened under the previous government of the incumbent right-wing conservative government.
Ziobro described the agreement as a "feminist creation to justify homosexual ideology".
Withdrawal from the treaty would be "a serious setback for human rights," Giffey said.
The only goal of the Istanbul Convention is to "prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence".
Before International Women's Day, other politicians in the Bundestag also called across parliamentary groups not to let women become the losers of the corona crisis.
The women's political spokeswoman for the Greens, Ulle Schauws, emphasized, for example: "The pandemic painfully shows us as a society that the way to real equality is still a long way." There is no problem of knowledge, but of action.
"What is needed is a feminist government that understands equality as a central democratic issue and implements it consistently in government activities."
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mfh / AFP