Statement of the “Yes to Family, No to Gender” Committee in response to the statement of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on the Istanbul Convention and the commencement of works on the Convention on the Rights of the Family

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1. We wish to express our support for the plan announced by Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki, which involves filing a request to the Constitutional Tribunal to review the constitutionality of the Istanbul Convention. Meanwhile, we shall continue our activities related to the citizens’ initiative announced on 16 July, whose aim is to adopt a law that would enable the Polish executive to terminate the international agreement and commence works on the new, ideology-free Convention on the Rights of the Family.

2. We hope that the announced request will be referred to the Tribunal without undue delay and will be processed as soon as possible. The Istanbul Convention case is of paramount importance to the functioning of the human rights protection system in Poland. The Committee has a ready draft application to the Tribunal including a comprehensive presentation of the non-compliance of the Convention regulations with the guarantees that lie at the core of the Polish legal order, including in particular Article 18 (protection of the family and the marriage as a relationship between a woman and a man), Article 48 (parents’ right to raise their children in accordance with their own beliefs) and Article 2 (the principle of citizens’ equality before the law) of the Polish Constitution.

3. We would also like to express our joy that the Prime Minister and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Paweł Jabłoński have announced international actions for the conclusion of an ideology-free international agreement based on scientific knowledge that protects the family and provides efficient solutions to combat violence against its members. For years civic environments active in the Committee have been emphasising the urgent need for such an international agreement, which is reflected in their draft Convention on the Rights of the Family. Therefore, we would like to declare our full readiness to be involved in the works on the new draft Convention.