Poland will take action next week to withdraw from a European treaty on violence against women, which the right-wing cabinet says violates parents’ rights by requiring schools to teach children about gender, the justice minister said.
Zbigniew Ziobro said his ministry will submit a request to the Ministry of Labor and Families on Monday to begin the process of withdrawing from the treaty, known as the Istanbul Convention.
“It contains elements of an ideological nature, which we consider harmful,” Ziobro said at a press conference on Saturday.
Zbigniew Ziobro says his ministry would move on Monday to begin the process of withdrawing from the treaty. [Kacper Pempel/Reuters]
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and its coalition partners closely align with the Catholic Church and promote a conservative social agenda.
Hostility to gay rights was one of the main problems promoted by President Andrzej Duda during a successful reelection campaign this month.
On Friday thousands of people, mostly women, protested in Warsaw and other cities against proposals to reject the treaty.
Protesters hold signs saying ‘Let us live’ and ‘Women’s Strike’ during the Friday demonstration in the capital Warsaw [Wojtek Radwanski/AFP]
“The goal is to legalize domestic violence,” Magdalena Lempart, one of the organizers of the protest, said Friday at a march in Warsaw. Some protesters carried placards saying “PiS is women’s hell.”
PiS has long complained about the Istanbul Convention, which Poland ratified under a previous centrist government in 2015.
The government says the treaty is disrespectful of religion and requires the teaching of liberal social policies in schools, although in the past it did not come to a decision to resign.
Ziobro represents a smaller right-wing party within the ruling coalition.
A government spokesman was not available Saturday to comment on whether Ziobro’s announcement of plans to withdraw from the treaty represented a collective cabinet decision.
The World Health Organization says that domestic violence has increased this year in Europe during the months of confinement aimed at fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
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