The Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence is one of the most controversial agreements to be ever tabled by the Council of Europe. In fact, it’s much ado about nothing and both conservatives and progressivists have chosen the Convention as their ideological proxy war battlefield.
No one is saying that violence on women and children does not exist, but it is extremely difficult if not impossible to eradicate them as some people are violent and stupid. Therefore, it can only be tackled by a more effective enforcement of the current legislation and education.
The IC is supposed to include a definition of sex as a socially established role, however it does not define and mention sex but gender. And while sex is based on a biology, gender is a social construct. A real effect of such definition will always be limited. Both camps are overestimating a power of international agreements.
On the other hand, it is truly hard to agree with some parts of the IC. A need to remove customs and traditions based on stereotypes of men’s and women’s roles for example. Mother taking care of a child up to a certain age and a male’s importance during other phases of childhood are patterns developed over thousands of years.
The so-called traditional family concept come to an end as a side effect of emancipation on women and for many young people, marriage has no value. So instead of debating useless agreements, maybe it would be wiser to look for new concepts.
