Romania is one of the 38 countries that have ratified The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence – or, in short, the Istanbul Convention. Romania signed the Convention in 2014 and ratified it two years later.
If we accept the official version, this international treaty is the main legal instrument that will help eliminate – or at least curb – domestic violence and violence against women, that will protect women “against all forms of violence”, eliminate discrimination and promote social equality. One of the explicit obligations of this treaty is to promote “transformations in the social and cultural patterns of behaviour of women and men, with a view to eradicating prejudices, customs, traditions and other practices”.
So far, so good.

But the Istanbul Convention is not only about “combating discrimination and domestic violence”, it is also about imposing a concept that is as controversial as it is unscientific – 'gender’. An increasing number of actors are criticising the strong ideological dimension of this treaty. The Istanbul Convention defines “gender” as “the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a society considers appropriate for women and men” – i.e. those so-called “non-stereotypical” roles. According to neo-Marxists, promoters of gender ideology, gender and biological sex are different. “Gender” would be what a society deems “appropriate” for one person or another, and may be different from natural sex. “Gender” is (no longer) a given, but a choice! Whether it is called “gender identity”, “gender dimension”, “gender perspective”, it is the same abomination, used by extreme-left for forced indoctrination. Under the guise of combating an very serious phenomenon, the Convention is in fact an instrument of an insane ideology, whose clearly expressed aim is to eradicate the principles, values and customs that we know and that have always been the foundation of life.

Romania ratified the Istanbul Convention, regardless of growing international criticism. The main argument of the states that chose not to ratify it was precisely this concept of 'gender’, used to force the implementation of a radical agenda, contrary to our values and human nature. While in Slovakia and Hungary, national-conservative parliamentary forces managed to block its entry into force, in Bulgaria the Constitutional Court declared its ratification unconstitutional; the basis being the same: the allegedly confusing inconsistencies and contradictions regarding 'gender’.

One of the States that expressed its intention to leave the Convention was Poland. Since 2020, representatives of the Warsaw government, including former Justice Minister , have spoken out against the ideological nonsense promoted by the Council of Europe and announced their intention to initiate the procedure for denunciation and withdrawal. In 2021, the conservative-dominated parliament in Warsaw adopted a resolution entitled “Yes to the family, not to gender!”, which included the withdrawal of Poland from the treaty. In the summer of this year, the former Polish government vetoed an EU directive that used the same term – „gender”. “In the shadow of the struggle for privileges for homosexuals and other LGBT people, the rights of Christians are widely violated in Europe today”, Zbigniew Ziobro said.

Even if, to date, only Turkey has officially withdrawn from the Istanbul Convention, the coming to power of conservative and sovereignist forces in as many European states as possible should result in the serious questioning of whether or not to remain a member of this atrocious Convention.

A future conservative government in Bucharest should also immediately put on the public agenda the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, a treaty which is being openly used by the progressive radical left to impose concepts that have no scientific basis, including the existence of more than 70 genders. A denunciation and withdrawal by Romania from this monstruos Convention would be a sign of normality and a strong signal to other states that are hesitating to take such a decision.

Dragoș Moldoveanu was born in 1985 in Romania (Neamț county).
He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science – University of Bucharest (2008), and the Faculty of Law – Nicolae Titulescu University (2020). He holds a Master in Political Theory (2013).
Author of more than 100 articles, book reviews and translations published in “The Conservative Movement”, “Lumea Magazin” (Romania), “Convorbiri literare” (Romania), “Rost” (Romania), “Verso” (Romania), “Nazione Futura” (Italy), he is the founder and President of the Institute for Renaissance Studies Assocation (Romania).
Currently he is a Parliamentary advisor at the Romanian Senate and a member of the Board of the Mihai Eminescu Institute for Conservative Political Studies and General Secretary of “Rost” Association.