{"id":206008,"date":"2022-09-13T09:43:53","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T09:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.watchdog.md\/?p=206008"},"modified":"2023-06-13T11:27:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T08:27:42","slug":"the-istanbul-convention-disinformation-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/studies\/206008\/the-istanbul-convention-disinformation-report\/","title":{"rendered":"The Istanbul Convention Disinformation Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The Istanbul Convention is widely recognized as the most far-reaching legal instrument to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence as a violation of human rights. The Republic of Moldova is the 35th state to ratify the Istanbul Convention through Law No 144 of 14<\/em><sup><em>th<\/em><\/sup><em> of October 2021. The instrument of ratification of the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence was deposited by the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Moldova to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 31<\/em><sup><em>st<\/em><\/sup><em> of January 2022. The Convention entered into force on 1<\/em><sup><em>st<\/em><\/sup><em> of May 2022. <\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Pursuant to\r\nArticle 78 paragraph 2 of the Convention, the Republic of Moldova has submitted\r\nreservations to Articles 30 and 58 of the Convention. In view of Law No 144 of\r\n14 October 2021, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection is the\r\ninstitution responsible for implementing the provisions of the Convention.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The Convention creates\r\na positive obligation for states to take measures to prevent domestic violence,\r\nprotect and support the victims, as well as introduce substantive and\r\nprocedural changes to the national legislation in this respect. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Although the Convention\r\nis a vastly positive and, safe to say, crucial development in the field of\r\nhuman rights protection, as well as the protection of female and child victims\r\nof violence in the Republic of Moldova, a country with chilling records of\r\nviolence against women, its ratification came on the backsplash of an ample and\r\ncarefully orchestrated disinformation campaign.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>A previous\r\nstudy executed by WatchDog.MD highlighted the key narratives that were\r\nregularly promoted on various informational platforms. These narratives were\r\nconceived to evoke strong polarising emotions, such as fear, hatred and disgust\r\nand were vastly aligned with the Kremlin\u2019s propaganda agenda aimed at\r\nfortifying its position as the citadel of the so-called \u201ctraditional values\u201d by\r\nantagonizing the West and its \u201cdecaying morals\u201d. A non-exhaustive list of the\r\ndisinformation narratives concerning the Convention that were intensely\r\npromoted in the periods preceding the ratification, and most importantly,\r\nduring election campaigns between 2015-2020 is presented below: <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Corruption of moral values and the imminent collapse of the West as a result<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>This narrative\r\naims to highlight the West\u2019s alleged moral depravity, which is illustrated by\r\nthe abandonment of Christian values, extreme sexual decadence, the decay of\r\ntraditional families as a core societal unit, as well as the excessive\r\nempowerment of the youth.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Desecration\r\nof traditional gender roles in the West<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The focal point\r\nof this narrative is the subversion of traditional gender norms in the West.\r\nInflammatory language is used to present imminent dangers of Western gender\r\nagenda: the emergence of the so-called \u201cquasi-males\u201d, the \u201cgay dictatorship\u201d,\r\nlack of gender based differentiation, dictatorial feminism and the\r\nmasculinisation of females. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Western\r\nsubversion through &#8220;gender ideology&#8221;<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>This narrative\r\nhighlights the fact that the so called gender ideology is weaponized by the\r\nWest and promoted by civil society groups and various entities, as well as\r\ninternational organisations through international treaties. It holds that\r\nWestern LGBTQ+ elites force homosexuality upon societies with traditional\r\nvalues, in the Russian sphere of influence. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Russia\r\nas the sole power safeguarding traditional Christian values<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>This narrative\r\naims to fortify the image of Russia as the regional power safeguarding\r\nChristian traditional values and morals, juxtaposed to the vilified and degrading\r\nimage of the West. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Sexual\r\naggression caused by others <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The target of\r\nthis narrative is portraying Muslim, Ukrainian and Jewish men, as well as NATO\r\nsoldiers as widely responsible for sexual violence against women.&nbsp; <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>The\r\ncomplicity of occidental elites, the mass-media and judicial systems<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>This narrative is\r\ncentred around the fact that Western authorities, judicial systems and mass-media\r\nconspire to deny accountability to Muslim men for acts of sexual violence\r\nagainst women.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Extreme\r\nor excessive tolerance in the West <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The focal point\r\nof the narrative is to portray Western societies as having an ill and distorted\r\nview of reality, resulting in excessive tolerance and complete eradication of\r\ntraditional values. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>It is important\r\nto note that the narratives described above, in the time-frame preceding\r\nMoldova\u2019s accession to the Istanbul Convention, permeated the informational space\r\nwith high intensity, being actively employed during electoral campaigns. In the\r\naftermath of the ratification, the occurrence of these narratives diminished\r\nsignificantly. Thus, it can be inferred that the purpose of the narratives described\r\nabove was to fuel the geopolitical divisions in the Moldovan society for\r\npolitical gain. In other words, during electoral campaigns, voices supporting\r\npro-Russian candidates weaponized the issue of the ratification of the\r\nconvention to gain political capital by portraying democratic forces,\r\nadvocating for the ratification, as seeking to dismantle traditional values. Hence,\r\nthese narratives have been dropped almost entirely when they failed to fulfil\r\ntheir purpose of discrediting pro-democratic forces during previous elections.\r\nWith the tense context in the region, the focus has, instead, shifted to other\r\nnarratives, pertaining to issues regarding the EU-candidacy status of the\r\nRepublic of Moldova, as well as the way the current government handles the\r\nenergy crisis, for example. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>After the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, no new narratives were identified. However, it has been established that the frequency of the aforementioned narratives has significantly diminished in the aftermath of the ratification. Instead, new narratives pertaining to different issues have emerged. From this, it can be concluded that the disinformation campaign regarding the Istanbul Convention had as its goal to antagonize pro-democratic forces and portray them as a threat to traditional values, while heavily painting Kremlin as the power safeguarding Christian moral beliefs. <\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Author: Vatavu Otilia, WatchDog.MD<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em>image source: Rosemary Ketchum via pexels.com<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Istanbul Convention is widely recognized as the most far-reaching legal instrument to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence as a violation of human rights. The Republic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206008","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=206008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdog.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}