Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki has submitted a request to the Constitutional Tribunal to determine whether a European convention on preventing violence against women and domestic violence is in accordance with the country’s constitution.
A spokesperson at the tribunal today confirmed that a request for a legal opinion on the Istanbul Convention, which Poland ratified in 2015, has been received by the court following Morawiecki’s announcement on Thursday.
Morawiecki’s move effectively delays any further action towards a withdrawal from the convention, after recent controversy following from announcements by ministers hailing from the junior coalition partners of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party that the country would be pulling out.
“In the public discussion, many people are making serious objections regarding the Istanbul Convention, i.e. that it conflicts with our legal order, has an ideological basis, and incorrectly defines the true sources of violence towards women,” Morawiecki said, quoted by Rzeczpospolita.
“As a government, we partly share these concerns,” the prime minister added, explaining that he wanted to check whether the document was compatible with the state’s obligation to be unbiased in ideological questions and parents’ right to raise their children “in accordance with their own conscience”.
“Matters of such great importance must be considered within a transparent, legally binding procedure,” he said.
Morawiecki protested at the “false argument” and “manipulations” suggesting that concerns over the convention meant that the government accepted violence, and said that Polish legislation offered better protection to victims of domestic violence than that of other European countries which his political opponents liked to cite, reports Rzeczpospolita.
The Istanbul Convention, a treaty of the Council of Europe to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence, was ratified by Poland in 2015, under the former government led by the centrist Civic Platform (PO).
The current ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party always opposed ratification. It argued that, while domestic violence should be prevented, the treaty was an attempt to promote “gender ideology” because it defines gender as a “social construct” (rather than a biological one).
Marek Safjan, a former head of the Constitutional Tribunal and current judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union, told Onet that he thought the prime minister’s decision to refer the case to the tribunal was a manoeuvre designed to give the impression of action when none was in fact taken, and a delaying tactic to keep the case in the “tribunal’s waiting room”.
Safjan added that he found it inexplicable to refer the case now, saying that “many constitutionalists” had given their opinions when it was ratified in 2015, and said the government’s assurances that the Polish legal system gave sufficient protection to victims of domestic violence were untrue.
“This move has nothing to do with any constitutional debate,” he said. “It is more about achieving unknown political objectives.”
Zbigniew Ziobro, the justice minister, who last week announced that he would commence the process of terminating Poland’s ratification of the convention, commented on the inevitable delay by saying that “the mills of justice, including in the Constitutional Tribunal, grind slowly.”
“I appreciate the fact that the prime minister has taken a position on this subject, which is very important to us,” Ziobro said in an interview for TV Trwam. “All the points he mentioned, in my view as minister of justice and prosecutor general, leave no doubt that they are contrary to the constitution.”
Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM
Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.
