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In a discussion on Women’s Solidarity Day, human rights experts explained how the ratification of the Istanbul Convention could change this, while answering the most pressing questions about the concept of gender and its legal consequences.
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According to Jurgita Cinskienė, director of the Lithuanian Association for the Enforcement of Women’s Rights and director of the Information and Training Center for Women in Kretinga, people who experience violence do not receive enough protection and help.
“Our association brings together the 16 specialized comprehensive assistance centers that provide assistance to victims of violence in Lithuania. <...> In 2020, the police received 58.5 thousand. reports of domestic violence. This is 160 messages per day or 1 message every 10 minutes. But only more than 7,000 cases were preceded by pre-trial investigations. In other words, only 1 in 8 cases, which really isn’t much. What does this mean? That only 1 in 8 people receive protection and probably help, ”said J. Cinskienė.
“The system works like this: the police officers receive a report of domestic violence and go to the scene. If the circumstances are sufficient, a pre-trial investigation is initiated and the information is sent to a specialized complex care center. Didn’t 7 out of 8 people really have the right to protection and help? ”, Added the specialist.
According to J. Cinskienė, practice shows that it is possible to identify only physical violence in the immediate environment, at that time identifying psychological, economic and sexual violence is much more difficult.
Birutė Sabatauskaitė, director of the Lithuanian Center for Human Rights, stated that the convention would provide additional legal measures that would prevent further recurrent violence.
“However, almost all protection measures in Lithuania are activated when a pre-trial investigation is initiated, or in cases where there is sufficient evidence that violence may have occurred, it is possible to impose certain protection measures, such as forcing the abuser to stay away from the victim or move temporarily, can be administered within 24 hours.
However, those who work with victims of domestic violence know that those 24 hours are, in some cases, crucial to protect human life, as well as to prevent a person from giving testimony without being influenced by anyone. The Istanbul Convention refers to such things as an urgent court order or a protection order, which should come into effect shortly after arriving at the scene and there is a risk that the person may be harmed again, ”said B. Sabatauskaitė.
According to her, Lithuania has no such order in its legal acts.
What setting would you change?
According to B. Sabatauskaitė, many unknown and misleading interpretations of the Istanbul Convention have spread in the public space, for example, that certain books will have to be removed from the shelves or that it would be forbidden to burn More during Mardi Gras. The director of the center emphasizes that nothing like this is written in the Istanbul Convention.
“The Convention is not a directly applicable act; it simply encourages and says that member states must take steps to change gender provisions that justify violence, that justify the existence of provisions that restrict both boys and girls from choosing a profession and that limit opportunities. Also for children, men should seek help, because since childhood they have been told that they cannot cry, that they must be strong, that they must organize themselves, “said B. Sabatauskaitė.
According to her, the convention emphasizes the consequences of stereotypes and men’s emotional health, encourages men to report cases of domestic violence and seek help.
“It is incorrect to say that the convention allegedly accuses men and says that all men are perpetrators. In fact, the convention simply says that not all men are perpetrators and become perpetrators because of long-standing unequal relationships,” he explained B. Sabatauskaitė.
According to B. Sabatauskaitė, that is why it is very important to talk with children from an early age about what is healthy and what is harmful in relationships, even between friends, how to draw their limits, how to understand when their limits are exceeded . .
Confusion about the concept of “gender”
The wording of the Convention on gender in the social dimension in the Convention has sparked a great debate in the public sphere. Erika Leonaitė, head of legal programs at the Institute for Human Rights Monitoring, explained the essence of the concept and what would change after the ratification of this convention.
“It is said that in addition to biological sex, there are also genetic factors, roles, behaviors, activities, socially formed traits that are considered appropriate and appropriate for women and men, respectively, in a given society.
In other words, gender from a social point of view is like a certain social and cultural meaning of masculinity and femininity ”, explained E. Leonaitė.
E. Leonaitė emphasizes that the Istanbul Convention itself does not seek to deny biological gender.
“It is often said that the Istanbul Convention would introduce and enforce the concept of gender from a social point of view; this is not the case. We just don’t have two terms in Lithuanian, so there have been a lot of discussions and problems on how to translate that famous term, the term “Gender.”
This is not only the case for the Lithuanian language: there are many languages in which there are no different concepts that define gender exclusively as a biological category and as a sociocultural category, but English and French have different terms and consequently the Istanbul language Convention contains those two concepts. ”, – spoke E. Leonaitė.
What would happen if the Istanbul Convention were ratified?
“I would like to emphasize that, in the first place, there should be no obligation to find in our legislation one or another concept that replaces the term ‘Gender’. But what does that mean? This means recognizing that our current concept of gender encompasses not only biological reality but also social meaning.
There is nothing particularly new in this regard: we are members of the EU, we are on EU directives. For example, the directive on the rights of crime victims uses the term “gender”.
“Our national legislation uses the concept of” gender “, which is defined to include the social roles of men and women; it is used in the recommendations of our Attorney General, for example, on how to carry out pre-trial investigations for motivated crimes by prejudices “, emphasized E. Leonaitė.
E. Leonaitė thus emphasized that in no way is there an obligation to amend the Constitution and redefine gender there.
Why not save?
Rugilė Butkevičiūtė, project manager of the Women’s Information Center, was surprised by the lack of political will, as politicians in the past did not shy away from making unpopular decisions. R.Butkevičiūtė emphasized that according to the 2014 data, the problem of violence against women costs Lithuania more than 660 million. by year.
“We are talking about the ratification of the Istanbul Convention for 8 years, now it is said that it is worth postponing, not for the spring, maybe for the autumn session, maybe even later.” The natural question arises: why, in the face of public opposition, politicians still pass laws like the introduction of a property tax, the introduction of other taxes? After all, society is bustling and unwilling to pay.
Why don’t we have the political will and courage to tell the public: “We listen to your opinion, but we want to save you money as taxpayers, because in 2014, as estimated by the Institute for Gender Equality, violence against women costs you more to Lithuania? of 660 million a year. euros. Why don’t we save in this case? ”Said R.Butkevičiūtė.
The number of people killed by violence increases
R. Butkevičiūtė, project manager and lawyer at the Women’s Information Center, stated that Lithuania is a leader in the European Union in terms of the number of women who died in the immediate environment. According to her, current laws are simply not enough to deal with domestic violence.
In 2020, 29 women died in the vicinity, which is 7 more women than the previous year. This number of homicides is increasing in the immediate vicinity. If you ask a raped woman, whether in the immediate environment or outside, where to turn for help, this is not the case. We have specialized complex care centers that operate in the immediate environment. If the crime was committed outside of the immediate environment, sorry, be yourself with your trauma. <...> The convention offers us a system, a systematic approach to violence against women, ”explained R. Butkevičiūtė.
Dalia Puidokienė, board member of the Lithuanian Women’s Rights Association, director of the Klaipėda Center for Social and Psychological Assistance, said that the emergence of the Istanbul Convention would be another instrument that would help everyone to change and be more understanding. .
“In case of any type of violence, the person must have a safe environment so that they can change. A safe environment for a person is not necessarily the environment in which they live, but also outside the family. If a person is categorized and attacked, there is no such security for him, he immerses himself even more in his safe environment, which is usually latency, isolation, secrecy, where he can still remain with the consequences of the violence he has experienced. There he feels safe and suffers there ”, commented D. Puidokienė.
J. Cinskienė added that prevention and cooperation are very important elements in this case.
“All these things are covered by the Istanbul Convention. <...> We should talk about the fact that prevention should be done 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, not 16 days a year. Here we have to talk not only about public education in general, but also about various directions, starting with the youngest in our society and ending with the elderly ”, said the specialist.
E. Leonaitė, Head of Legal Programs at the Institute for Human Rights Monitoring, said that the Istanbul Convention in itself is not a magic medicine, but it is important because by making commitments to take action, an international commitment is also acquired.
“In this way, this commitment to the fight against violence is strengthened, since the position is already expressed that a principled approach to violence against women, inadmissibility and the need to combat it is part of our state and part of our legal system, “said E .Leonaitė.
“The ratification of the convention would give us an additional impetus to improve existing practices and regulations. If we do not ratify, we have a greater risk, there may be a setback and even the mechanisms that exist now may be weakened,” added the lawyer.
