AUCCRO reps explain to deputies risks of Istanbul Convention

A meeting of representatives of the AUCCRO with parliamentarians in Kyiv, 31.05.21. Photo: vrciro.org.ua

Representatives of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO) pointed out to Ukrainian parliamentarians the risks and ideological bias of the Istanbul Convention, which, as religious leaders believe, make its ratification impossible. The discussion of these issues took place in Kyiv on May 31, at a regular meeting with the inter-factional deputy association “Values. Dignity. Family", reports the website of the AUCCRO.

The AUCCRO explained the lack of confidence in the Istanbul Convention by the fact that it carries an ideological superstructure, which, in the opinion of religious leaders, is a direct violation of Art. 15 of the Constitution of Ukraine, according to which "no ideology can be recognized by the state as obligatory".

Representatives of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches noted that through such concepts as "gender", "sexual orientation" and "gender identity", as well as the requirements for teaching children at schools "non-stereotypical gender roles" (Article 14 of the Convention), a gender ideology is actually imposed on Ukrainian society. This ideology involves replacing the gender identification of women and men with gender when a person is encouraged to independently choose a gender from more than 50 fictional configurations.

According to the Council of Churches, the greatest risk of the Istanbul Convention is threats to the security of Ukraine associated with the introduction of a gender ideology, which in fact is far from a practical solution to the problems of equal rights for women and men. Therefore, religious leaders are in favour of improving the national legislation of Ukraine on combating domestic violence as other countries that have refused to ratify the Istanbul Convention do.

Representatives of the inter-factional deputy association “Values. Dignity. Family” (created on the initiative of Sviatoslav Yurash, a deputy from the Servant of the People party with the aim of protecting “the eternal values of Ukrainian society”- Ed.) agreed that the issue of ratifying the Istanbul Convention is debatable and requires further discussion.

The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, known as the Istanbul Convention, was signed in 2011. Ukraine, Great Britain, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Bulgaria and other countries have not ratified it. In addition, recently Turkey has announced the denunciation of ratification and withdrawn from the convention.

As reported, in Vilnius, about 10 thousand Lithuanians marched against same-sex marriage and the Istanbul Convention.

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