{"id":635,"date":"2018-04-19T20:28:29","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T20:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/?p=635"},"modified":"2019-05-28T14:27:30","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T14:27:30","slug":"istanbul-ratification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/istanbul-ratification\/","title":{"rendered":"Istanbul ratification still nowhere in sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Slovak Spectator, 19. 4. 2018<\/em><\/p>\n

The international document preventing violence against women was one of the reasons why a former justice minister left the government.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thousands of people protested against the international convention to prevent violence against women, but the government ratified it anyway. That is last week\u2019s news from Croatia, where the protest in the city of Split on April 12 did not stop the parliament from giving the green light to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence<\/a>, better known as the Istanbul Convention<\/em>. Slovakia signed the convention under the government of Iveta Radi\u010dov\u00e1 in 2011 but the governments that followed, all led by Smer, have been reluctant to ratify the document, along with nine other EU countries.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The issue had been on the table recently, just before the murder of a journalist and his fianc\u00e9e thrust Slovakia into a major political crisis that pushed aside all other issues, including the convention on preventing violence against women, to the margins of public discourse. Before then, Slovakia had had its own protests against the Istanbul Convention staged by conservatives who see the document as a symbol of \u201cgender ideology\u201d and liberal attitudes regarding women and family. Much like elsewhere in Europe, there has been a lot of distorted information about the document in Slovakia, including the falsehood that it promotes same-sex marriages. \u201cAs long as I am prime minister and the questions over the interpretation are not satisfied, I will never agree to ratifying this document,\u201d<\/em> then PM Robert Fico<\/strong> said about the convention back in February. <\/p>\n

Fico has not been prime minister for over a month now but the Peter Pellegrini government is apparently going to keep the line on this matter. Moreover, Fico is still the head of the ruling Smer and the ruling coalition still consists of Smer, Most-H\u00edd, and the SNS. The latter has been known as the main opponent of the Istanbul Convention, sustaining traditionalist attitudes. In the past, SNS leader Andrej Danko<\/strong> said he would not remain part of the government for one second if they were in conflict over the Istanbul Convention, Sme daily reported. In fact, the Istanbul Convention was one of the things Danko listed on April 18 that he needed to discuss with PM Peter Pellegrini.<\/p>\n

Adriana Mesochoritisov\u00e1<\/strong>, activist and member of the Government\u2019s Council for Human Rights, National Minorities and Gender Equality, said that the better protection of women against violence requires the ratifying of the convention. Slovakia is a shining example of a country where there are many good laws that are not implemented and become toothless, she added.<\/p>\n

\u0160arlota Pufflerov\u00e1<\/strong> of the Citizen, Democracy and Responsibility (ODZ) non-governmental organisation, which advocates for human rights, says that the ratification of the Istanbul Convention would mean Slovakia would have another, very concrete obligation to fulfill with its already-existing commitments<\/strong>. She noted that governments have been reluctant to promote gender equality in Slovakia. \u201cBut the question is not whether Slovakia wants it or not,\u201d<\/em> she said. \u201cWe have already committed ourselves to do all this, because we have ratified the UN Convention that has precedence over our laws, and even our Constitution.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe core of the problem of gender-based violence on women is that gender stereotypes prevail in society,\u201d<\/em> Pufflerov\u00e1 believes. \u201cThe point is that this should start changing.\u201d<\/em> Another thing is that states must be ready to spend a sufficient amount of money to support the policies aimed at preventing violence against women. Pufflerov\u00e1 noted that most of the projects in this area are financed from foreign sources, mostly the EU and Norwegian Funds.<\/p>\n

Pufflerov\u00e1 believes there is resistance against the convention because stereotypes still rooted in society are often fostered by churches, which want women to remain in a subordinate position, to obey men, and to do whatever the man tells her to. \u201cThis is at odds with the democratic principles dominant in our Constitution,\u201d<\/em> Pufflerov\u00e1 said. \u201cEquality, not marriage, is dominant in our Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

Michaela Terenzani, Radka Minarechov\u00e1<\/strong>
\n 
\n\u00a9 The Rock, 2016
\nThe article was compiled by The Slovak Spectator staff, Slovakia\u2019s only English-language bi-weekly, on April 19, 2018 at 11:22 in the section News.<\/em>
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Slovak Spectator, 19. 4. 2018 The international document preventing violence against women was one of the reasons why a former justice minister left the government. Thousands of people protested against the international convention to prevent violence against women, but the government ratified it anyway. That is last week\u2019s news from Croatia, where the protest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635\/revisions\/650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}