Poland to start its withdrawal from European treaty on violence against women

Poland is all set to take steps in the coming week to withdraw from the European treaty that opposes violence against women. Triggering protests in the nation, the right-wing cabinet has reportedly said that the specific treaty violates the rights of the parents by needing the educational institutes to teach the children about gender. Polish justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro has said his ministry would submit a request to the labour and families ministry on July 27 to start the process of quitting the Istanbul Convention. 

However, thousands of protesters in Warsaw and several other cities in the country demonstrated against the conservative government’s decision of withdrawing from the treaty. Several carried the signs of ‘Women’s strike’ rights movement and chanted “Fight against the virus not against women” and rallied through the downtown Warsaw. The demonstrators even marched in front of the offices of a Roman Catholic organisation of lawyers, Ordo Iuris that is backing the country’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention. 

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Polish govt says treaty has ‘harmful elements’

Despite the raging opposition to the move, Ziobro said in a news conference on July 26 that the European treaty “contains elements of an ideological nature, which we consider harmful”.The ruling law and justice party in Poland, PiS and its coalition partners are closely aligned with the Catholic Church and thus promote a conservative social agenda. Even during his reelection campaign, Poland President Andrej Duda’s main agenda was hostility to gay rights. Meanwhile, the protesters in the country have said that the members of the Roman Catholic organisation of lawyers are ‘fundamentalists’. 

The Istanbul Convention was ratified in 2015 by the previous liberal administration and only recently, the ruling government had indicated towards its plans of leaving the treaty. The government has maintained its stance of the treaty going against the constitution of the country, family traditions of the Roman Catholic. Moreover, the ministers have also said that it is wrong to link the religion to violence against women. The liberal opposition parties have backed the convention.

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(With inputs from agencies)

Image: AP