The European Union plan to adopt the ideologically biased Istanbul Convention is very concerning. Despite its name, this controversial document not only does not contain effective tools to fight violence, but also introduces numerous dangerous regulations which all Member States will be forced to abide by once the Convention has been adopted by the European Union.

The Convention undermines family and marriage, considering differences between men and women to be the basic source of violence. At the same time, it completely ignores the objective causes of this phenomenon, such as alcohol and drug addiction. The ideological framework of combating ‘gender-based violence’ proposed in the Convention is totally misguided and ineffective. In fact, ironically in the countries that have been implementing it for years, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency has recorded the highest rates of domestic violence in Europe. In fact, it is the family that protects its members from violence – it is not a hotbed of dysfunctional phenomena as alleged in the Istanbul Convention.

In addition, the Convention imposes gender ideology on the Member States by abolishing the objective biological notion of sex and replacing it with the concept of gender, understood as a socio-cultural construct, effectively making the use of this ideological concept mandatory at all levels of state policy. The document includes references to ‘gender identity’ which, in the language of radical activists, means the possibility of subjectively assigning gender based on one’s feelings.

Under the guise of combating violence, the Convention also aims to impose ideological content on children. It calls for the introduction of compulsory courses on the ‘non-stereotypical gender roles’ into curricula at all levels of education. This means that schools will be forced to try to convince children that there are ‘different genders’ and that they can choose their ‘gender identity’ – completely without their parents’ consent. Thus, the Convention undermines the fundamental rights of parents to raise children in accordance with their own beliefs.

The news about plans to adopt the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence by the European Union is a cause of great concern for us.

Although we have no doubts that the European Union should make every effort to combat domestic violence, we are convinced that this controversial document not only does not contain effective solutions in this regard, but it simultaneously introduces numerous risky regulations which have a direct, negative impact on the good of the family and its members.

The Convention itself is extremely ideological as well. It further antagonises our society by introducing gender struggle elements, which are bound to lead to the deconstruction of both the family and social norms based on the acceptance of differences between men and women. The document’s creators completely misidentify the problem of violence, believing that its sources are the societal structure based on a marriage and family, the parents’ rights to raise children in accordance with their own beliefs, as well as the complementary roles of men and women. In addition, the creators of the Convention completely ignore the issue of physical and psychological violence against men who, according to some studies, are victims of violence to the same degree as women, but rarely admit it due to fear of social ostracism.

All available research clearly shows that the most common causes of violence are family breakdown situations as well as addiction (alcohol, drug, gambling, pornography and sex addiction). Furthermore – as evidenced by the research by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency – violence remains at a very high level even in countries actively implementing gender ideology.

Regardless, the Convention completely ignores all these objective factors – a fact which clearly demonstrates its extremely ideological nature. Under the guise of combating violence against women, the Convention calls for the introduction of obligatory education on ‘non-stereotypical gender roles’ for children, which is to begin at an early age, and greatly interferes with family autonomy. Thus, it violates several basic human rights laid out in international treaties and constitutions of individual Member States. The fundamental rights of parents are clearly defined in art. 26 section 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 8 and 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights and art. 2 of Additional Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights.