Bulgarians in defence of family. International support for the petition

Parents United for Children

A coalition of experts and leaders of pro-family organisations from several European countries supported the petition initiated by the Ordo Iuris Institute against the accession of the European Union to the Istanbul Convention. The appeal in this matter was read during a demonstration in Sofia. A march in defence of family and against abuses by social services passed through the streets of the capital of Bulgaria. The event was organised by the Parents United for Children association.

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The Istanbul Convention contains many ideological wordings that are inconsistent with the national law of many European states. For example, the document questions the right of parents to bring up their children in accordance with their beliefs and suggests that violence is caused by the structure of society based on natural sex differences rather than pathologies of social life. Thus, it ignores the actual causes of domestic violence, such as family break-up or addictions.

The main assumptions of the Convention are based on the ideology of gender. The document negates biological sex differences, replacing them with the radically ideological concept of gender. It presents femininity and masculinity as social constructs created as a result of the dialectic battle of the sexes. The document also introduces the concept of ‘gender identity’, which involves allowing people to choose their sex according to subjective feelings.

The subject area regulated by the Convention lies beyond the competences of the European Union. The adoption of the Istanbul Convention would be tantamount to the imposition of its ideological regulations upon a number of states that are firmly opposed to it, such as Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary. Poland could no longer apply the Convention to a limited extent (i.e. in accordance with the Polish Constitution) as it does currently, and the possibility of its termination would be blocked in practice. This shows that citizens of European states need to protest against attempts to interfere in their choices and family life. The Convention instrumentally uses the problem of violence towards women for promoting a radical ideology that not only fails to counteract violence, but can even intensify it, as shown by studies of the Agency for Fundamental Rights in 2014.

“Bulgaria is an example of a state that consistently objects to gender ideology. The Istanbul Convention was rejected as dangerous to marriage and family by the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria in 2018. This gives hope that the plans of radical ideologists will be successfully thwarted,” notes Karolina Pawłowska, Director of the Ordo Iuris International Law Centre.