The Istanbul Convention: Sleepwalking Into Ruin

By John Gormley: Modern western societies are enormously complicated affairs composed of byzantine organisations and influences, often difficult to understand and navigate – despite which most of us get how the system works.

We vote for our local politicians, they have certain powers, they do things that influence our lives. We vote for national politicians, they have wider powers with further reaching effects.

Changes to these powers and the results of legislation created under this authority are closely scrutinised by voters and political pundits, journalists and special interest groups – not much is missed, as a rule.

And yet we are often blind to the very real power wielded by those in faraway offices and boardrooms, often acting on a transnational basis, which will unquestionably reach down and touch every one of us in our day-to-day lives through that same political system we so confidently feel we understand.

The very existence of the Istanbul Convention is unknown to many, even to high level journalists in national newspapers, politicians and pundits alike. It has been quietly put together, quietly pressed, and quietly ratified by enough countries to make it binding across those European states who have signed it, from the first of August 2014, with the last three being Spain, Andorra and Denmark. It will be going before the European Parliament soon, and if ratified there will become binding across the EU.

What is the Istanbul Convention? 

In short, it’s an agreement that governments will undertake to act within its guidelines, said guidelines being essentially a feminist blueprint to inflict every manner of injustice on half the population purely because they have male genitalia.

Let’s take a look over some of its articles and statements:

“Recognising that the realisation of de jure and de facto equality between women and men is a key element in the prevention of violence against women“

…but not violence against men.

“Recognising that violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between women and men, which have led to domination over, and discrimination against, women by men and to the prevention of the full advancement of womenRecognizing the structural nature of violence against women as gender-based violence, and that violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men“

Now we get to the meat of the matter – this is feminist patriarchy theory in a nutshell, which can be boiled down further to “men are bad, women are good”. Oh they’ll deny that’s what it means but it’s the villainisation of men in every circumstance, especially those circumstances where gender is not an issue, such as domestic and intimate partner violence.

“Recognising, with grave concern, that women and girls are often exposed to serious forms of violence such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape, forced marriage, crimes committed in the name of so-called “honour” and genital mutilation, which constitute a serious violation of the human rights of women and girls and a major obstacle to the achievement of equality between women and men“

So the exponentially more boys than girls suffering genital mutilation not only don’t exist but are an obstacle to equality. This was actually ratified by national governments.

“Recognising that women and girls are exposed to a higher risk of gender-based violence than men“

A bald lie put about by the recent FRA survey results, which used typical feminist falsification methodologies to decide who had been assaulted or raped and who hadn’t. The reality is that domestic and intimate partner violence is equally distributed between men and women, with if anything women being more violent.
And with shades of or rather outright wearing the desiccated skin of communist Romania we get to article 5:

“Article 5 – State obligations and due diligence 1   Parties shall refrain from engaging in any act of violence against women and ensure that State authorities, officials, agents, institutions and other actors acting on behalf of the State act in conformity with this obligation. 2   Parties shall take the necessary legislative and other measures to exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate, punish and provide reparation for acts of violence covered by the scope of this Convention that are perpetrated by non-State actors.“

Looks like being a police officer just got a whole lot more dangerous, at least if they’re facing an armed woman.
There’s much more of the Orwellian doublespeak, you get the general idea. Skipping on a bit, we get to the good stuff.

“Article 8 – Financial resourcesParties shall allocate appropriate financial and human resources for the adequate implementation of integrated policies, measures and programmes to prevent and combat all forms of violence covered by the scope of this Convention, including those carried out by non-governmental organisations and civil society.“

I’ll wager their beady little eyes were alight with avarice when they penned the above. Create a moral panic using vastly distorted and outright fabricated statistics, quietly push for ratification of a very dubious convention, thus invoking legal authority to resolve the nonexistent problems, and… profit!
Article 12, point 4:

“Parties shall take the necessary measures to encourage all members of society, especially men and boys, to contribute actively to preventing all forms of violence covered by the scope of this Convention.“

Now as I recall there was an effort by radical feminists to do something like this in Ireland back in 2000, they called it “The Exploring Masculinities Programme for Transition Year Boys“. The clown responsible was one Maureen Bohan, head of the newly created Gender Equality Unit within the Department of Education. As a true feminist believer, she postulated that masculinity was a social construct rather than something innate to men, and wanted to conduct ongoing social experiments on young Irish boys in order to “cure” them of their “sickness”. Thankfully at the time the attempt was derailed by watchful journalists, and yet here we are again.

This section of the Convention is intended to turn schools across Europe into feminist indoctrination camps, simply and bluntly.
And it goes on in a similar vein. Article 18 is the essence of the Duluth model, which means that in all cases of domestic violence the man is responsible whether or not the female present is willing to press charges and whether or not he is actually responsible, he can be arrested or thrown out of the house by police officers without any judicial proceedings, article 27 report your neighbours, article 31 fathers don’t get to see their children, and last but not least article 55 which means that for example if a false rape accuser withdraws their accusation, feminist groups and the state can still prosecute for rape.

What it isn’t

The Istanbul Convention isn’t legislation. These aren’t laws but rather guidelines to help shape laws, a billyclub to influence politicians into creating legislation in their own countries.
It will be left to local feminist groups (and there are many powerful feminist groups throughout all European governments, in particular Ireland) to put the squeeze on politicians, while the watchdogs to help maintain “progress” are a group called GREVIO, the modern-day witch-finder generals tasked with enforcement.
“Using a report-based procedure, the GREVIO will assess the different measures a state party has taken to give meaning to the convention. In addition to reports received from the state party under scrutiny, it may draw on information from NGOs. National parliaments are also invited to participate in the monitoring. Should the information received be insufficient or should a particular issue require immediate attention, the GREVIO may travel to the country in question for an inquiry.
On the basis of the information at its disposal, the GREVIO may adopt reports and conclusions aimed at helping the state party to better implement the convention. It may also adopt general recommendations addressed to all state parties.
In addition to the GREVIO, a second entity composed of the representatives of the parties to the convention will be set up: the Committee of the Parties. Its tasks will include, among others, electing the members of the GREVIO and issuing recommendations to state parties concerning the measures to be taken in order to implement the conclusions of the GREVIO.”

What can be done to stop it?

So what can be done? It can be opposed on two levels, one is the European Parliament and the other is locally for those already or soon to be under its lash.
However the EU doesn’t elect the politicians who write the laws, the electorate does, and it’s the electorate (both men and boys and the women who care about them) who will be adversely affected by this Convention. So what needs to be done is to raise awareness among voters of the implications of the agreement and keep a watchful eye on legislation resulting from the Convention to be opposed.
Make sure your politicians and community groups know of the danger that now hovers over their menfolk, and remind them that ideological misandry does not belong in decisions made by those in power.
The following message has been sent to all European election candidates that we could find email addresses for:

Dear election candidate,We would like to draw your attention to and solicit a response from you on the matter of the Istanbul Convention, which was recently ratified by the Council of Europe. This is a collection of guidelines complete with taxpayer-funded compliance inspectors which embodies radical feminist ideals, and will infringe on if not remove entirely many of the individual human rights of EU citizens.It has been quietly ushered in and ratified bysleepwalking politicians in ten states across the EU, hence becoming binding as of August the 1st, this year. The wide-reaching effects and ramifications of this toxic agenda cannot be overstated, so we urge you to investigate this matter fully and respond at your earliest convenience.The full text of the Istanbul Convention can be found here:https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1772191and our analysis of it can be found here:http://www.menshumanrightsireland.org/index.php?n=72Please be aware that your response or lack thereof will be published for our rapidly growing readership. Thank you for your time, Mens Human Rights Ireland.

The list of email addresses for these candidates is as follows, and we encourage people to contact them and voice their concerns in a polite, positive and supportive manner; running for election isn’t easy:
brian.hayes@oir.ie
mairead.mcguinness@europarl.europa.eu
sean.kelly@europarl.europa.eu
simon.harris@oir.ie
emer.costello@europarl.europa.eu
lorraine.higgins@oir.ie
phil@philprendergast.ie
patthecope.gallagher@europarl.europa.eu
kieranhartley4europe@outlook.com
Thomas.Byrne@oireachtas.ie
mark.dearey@gmail.com
brid.smith@dublincity.ie
ray@directdemocracy.ie
cnicfhearraigh@gmail.com
damon.matthew.wise@gmail.com
nessa.childers@europarl.europa.eu
marian@marianharkin.com
election2014@ronanmullen.ie
lukeming.flanagan@oireachtas.ie
eamon.ryan@greenparty.ie
http://paulmurphy.nationbuilder.com/contact_us
http://briancrowleymep.ie/contact/
http://www.fiannafail.ie/people/contact/mary-fitzpatrick/
http://www.jimhiggins.ie/ep/contact/contact-jim-in-ireland
No email contact address could be found for these candidates, if anyone has one for them please let us know:
Jillian Godsil
Richard Cahill
Diarmuid O’Flynn
TJ Fay
Mark Fitzsimmons
Jan Van De Ven
Ben Gilroy
Thomas Darcy
Grace O’Sullivan
Lynn Boylan (Lynn Ní Bhaoigheallain)
Matt Carthy
Liadh Ní Riada
Deirdre Clune
We will be following up on those we couldn’t find email addresses for and those who don’t respond via Facebook, Twitter, and the social media over the coming days. Further events and initiatives to raise awareness will be announced soon.
We can be contacted at info@menshumanrightsireland.org
Note: This article originally published on Men’s Human Rights Ireland.

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