{"id":205447,"date":"2020-01-21T10:43:20","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T10:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.watchdog.md\/?p=205447"},"modified":"2023-06-13T10:30:58","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T07:30:58","slug":"why-does-the-republic-of-moldova-need-to-ratify-the-istanbul-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/news\/205447\/why-does-the-republic-of-moldova-need-to-ratify-the-istanbul-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"Why does the Republic of Moldova need to ratify the Istanbul Convention?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo source: www.agora.md<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Violence against women is a form of discrimination and a violation of fundamental human rights. It is both a cause and a consequence of the inequalities between women and men perpetuated over time. Every day, women all over the world are physically and mentally abused: stalked, harassed, raped, beaten, mutilated, forced to marry, sterilized against their will, etc. These abuses, together with other forms of physical, sexual, economic and mental violence hinder women to fully fulfill their potential. Violence against women leads to women not growing their abilities and capacities, decreases their political participation and civic engagement, diminishes their performance in the workplace, increases the gender pay gap, reduces their ability to engage in educational and training opportunities, etc.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To combat this scourge that affects the society so\r\ndeeply, on 11 May, 2011 the Council of Europe adopted the Convention on\r\npreventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence<\/em> (also\r\nknown as the Istanbul Convention<\/em>). Preventing violence, protecting\r\nvictims and punishing perpetrators are the main goals of the convention. This tool\r\nalso attempts to change the thinking about the matters and related prejudices,\r\nbeing an incentive for attitude change in the society, especially for men and youth.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Over time, the national legislative and policy\r\nframework in the Republic of Moldova has undergone major changes, but violence\r\nagainst women persists. The latest data published by the Moldovan General\r\nPolice Inspectorate shows that, on average, 30 alerts received daily relate to domestic\r\nacts of violence. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, every third female\r\nvictim (34%) has never reported any of the violence acts she was subjected to.\r\nCurrent policies and legislation do not stop violence against women and\r\ndomestic violence because they do not tackle the problem in-depth. The gendered\r\nnature of violence against women is deeply embedded in social norms, and the\r\nIstanbul Convention is the most efficient international tool that can help\r\ncountries fight this phenomenon. The convention sets up a monitoring mechanism\r\nto assess how well its provisions are put into practice. This monitoring\r\nmechanism consists of two pillars: the Group of Experts on Action against\r\nViolence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO), an independent expert\r\nbody, and the Committee of the Parties, a political body composed of official\r\nrepresentatives of the States Parties to the Convention. These 2 entities\r\ngenerate in-depth analyzes of different national contexts, recommendations and\r\nprovide assistance through the exchange of best practices between the experts\r\nconcerned.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Republic of Moldova signed the Istanbul Convention\r\nin February 2017. Over the past three years national legislation has undergone\r\nharmonization with the provisions of the treaty. Due to the delay in\r\nratification, on November 28, 2019, several non-governmental organizations,\r\nplatforms and activists launched a public call asking Prime Minister Ion Chicu\r\nand Parliament Speaker Zinaida Greceanii to ratify the Convention by the end of\r\n2019. Consequently, on 11 December 2019, the draft law on ratification of the\r\nConvention was included on the agenda of the government meeting. However, prior\r\nto the session, the subject was removed from the agenda.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Following public pressure, on December 27, 2019, the issue\r\nwas re-introduced on the agenda of the Government meeting and approved the same\r\nday. According to art. 14 paragraph (2) of the Law on International Treaties of\r\nthe Republic of Moldova No. 595-XIV of 24.09.1999, the President of the\r\nRepublic of Moldova shall express his opinion about international treaties\r\nwithin 60 days from its presentation by the Government of the Republic of\r\nMoldova. Subsequently, the President’s written note will be transmitted to the Parliament.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There are no legal reasons to delay ratification of\r\nthe convention. Experts in the field say that the Republic of Moldova is ready\r\nto ratify the convention. However, some politicians’ comments and some\r\nmanipulative speeches disseminated by conservative and ultra-religious groups\r\nmay hinder ratification of the convention. The nature of the informal relationship\r\nbetween President Igor Dodon and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) may be an\r\nobstacle to ratification. During an official visit to Moscow, Igor Dodon\r\nassured the ROC Patriarch \u201cthat our people will continue to have faith in our\r\nChurch, and all branches of power in our country will pay special attention to\r\npreserving our traditional values and strengthening the status of the family in\r\nour society\u201d.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

An intensive campaign to manipulate public opinion\r\nagainst the Convention is orchestrated by conservative and ultra-religious\r\ngroups in several of the Eastern-European countries: Armenia, Russia, Ukraine,\r\nLithuania, Slovakia and Bulgaria. The goal is to discredit the provisions of\r\nthe Convention through manipulation and false information. As a response, the\r\nCouncil of Europe engaged in exposing and debunking the myths on the Istanbul\r\nConvention. The Venice Commission also issued a statement on the provisions of\r\nthe Istanbul Convention and Armenia\u2019s Constitution, dispelling the\r\nmisconceptions and calling for the ratification of the Convention. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Croatia is an example of success in countering manipulation\r\nand ignorance. After the signing of the Convention in 2013, the Croatian\r\ngovernment faced similar resistance from certain far-right groups and from the\r\nopposition of the Roman-Catholic church. But the Zagreb government, together\r\nwith civil society organizations and European Union\u2019s support, has succeeded in\r\ncountering manipulation and propaganda and ratified the Istanbul Convention in\r\nJuly 2018.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The case of the Republic of Moldova can be an example\r\nof success or failure. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We ask the President to submit to the Parliament the draft law on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, and to the Parliament – to adopt it. The Republic of Moldova has to ratify the Istanbul Convention because it is currently the most effective international tool to ensure the prevention and combating of violence against women and domestic violence.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The entire STUDY can be accessed HERE<\/a> (Romanian) <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This study was produced in the scope of the project \u201cFostering the Adoption and Implementation of Key Reforms\u201d, implemented with the support of National Endowment for Democracy. The opinions and the conclusions belong to the author and do not necessarily represent the opinion of National Endowment for Democracy\u201d. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo source: www.agora.md Violence against women is a form of discrimination and a violation of fundamental human rights. It is both a cause and a consequence of the inequalities between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[36,33,35,28,34],"class_list":["post-205447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-studies","tag-domestic-violence","tag-igor-dodon","tag-istanbul-convention","tag-republic-of-moldova","tag-violence-against-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}