Implementation of the Istanbul Convention in the Shadow of Populism: The Case of Poland

Katarzyna Sękowska-Kozłowska

Polish Academy of Sciences

The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (hereafter: Istanbul Convention or Convention) was ratified by Poland in 2015, just a few months before the present ruling party – Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice) took power. The ratification of the Convention was “a farewell gift” from the previous coalition of ruling parties, who were aware that if Law and Justice won the election, it would not ratify the Convention. The Convention has been contested since 2012, mainly by ultraconservative politicians and the Catholic Church, who initiated “the war on gender”. 

The Polish government is now therefore obliged to implement a treaty that it openly contests and declares its intention to withdraw from. In this post I will present a series of general findings based on submissions related to the baseline evaluation of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO). In March 2020, the government of Poland submitted its first report to GREVIO. Additional information was provided by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Republic of Poland and some NGOs. 

GREVIO’s baseline evaluation report on Poland is expected to be launched soon. It may offer interesting insights on the reception of the Istanbul Convention in Poland. In the meantime, I intend to share some views on the general problems overshadowing the problem of violence against women (VAW) in Poland, including the lack of a systemic approach towards VAW, conflating VAW with domestic violence (DV), a systemic denial of the gendered dimension of DV, and the replacement of gender mainstreaming by family mainstreaming. 

Lack of a Systemic Approach Towards VAW 

The state’s report clearly reveals that there is no systemic approach to VAW in Poland. As required by the provisions of chapter II of the Convention, state parties are obliged to undertake several measures in order to enforce comprehensive and co-ordinated policies embracing all forms of VAW covered by the treaty. Poland evidently fails to do so. There is no national action plan or policy addressing VAW. There is no co-ordinating body established to integrate the state’s actions against VAW. There is no special budget assigned to counteract VAW. As a result, measures addressing the problem of VAW appear non-existent within the governmental agenda. 

Conflating VAW with Domestic Violence 

Within the state’s report, the problem of VAW is reduced to domestic violence. This is the only form of violence, among those covered by the Convention, that receives any systemic response from the state, such as a special legal provision (the Act on Combating Family Violence of 2005) or a national policy. It seems that the Polish government desperately tries to repress that the treaty which it is bound by is foremost on violence against women, not the family. In the report it addresses DV mostly as harm to family and its members, without recognizing vulnerable position of women as its major victims. This approach is visible even on a semantic level - in the state’s report, the word “family” is used 775 times, almost seven times more than the word “women”. 

However, it does not follow that the focus on DV results in a flawless implementation of the duties imposed in this field by the Convention. Rather, there are several serious shortcomings in law and practice that impede effective protection against DV. These include, a lack of cooperation between the government and the local government entities which are typically in charge of responding to DV; a lack of a definition of economic violence and legal instruments to tackle it; lacunas in data collection; low rate of correction and educational programmes for perpetrators; and a lack of proper funding. 

On the other hand, there have also been some positive developments. In 2020, a long-awaited law addressing emergency barring orders was introduced. This law allows the police to evict an alleged perpetrator of DV from a place of residence shared with the victim for a period of up to 14 days. Thus, in circumstances where there is a risk of immediate danger, victims of DV will be provided with effective protection without needing to leave their own home in fear of a DV perpetrator. However, this important development has been instrumentally used by the government to diminish the Istanbul Convention, by suggesting that it has been achieved not only in the name of the Convention, but rather, despite it. While launching the new law, the Deputy Minister of Justice stated that it guaranteed more robust protection to DV victims than the Istanbul Convention, suggesting that the Convention is unnecessary. 

Systemic Denial of a Gendered Dimension of DV 

Rejection of the Istanbul Convention by the Polish government corresponds with a systemic denial of the gendered dimension of DV. There is no reference to women in either law or state policies related to DV. The state’s rhetoric is that domestic violence is a danger to the family, ignoring harm to individuals, who are predominantly women. Although gender blindness in relation to DV has been a problem in Poland for a long time, it is now more evident than ever.  

The Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment, a body which in the past promoted and coordinated Poland’s accession to the Convention, does not engage in implementation of this treaty nor in the promotion of gender equality. Women’s NGOs that have been active for years in the field of combatting DV are no longer consulted on laws and policies concerning DV or other gender issues. Moreover, these organizations have been performing state-commissioned services related to DV for years, including running shelters or providing support to DV victims. These organisation have been denied funding inter alia on the basis that the services that were directed towards female victims were sex-based discrimination. Currently, funding for counteracting DV is mostly provided to organizations with very modest records in this field. As for many other organizations dealing with human rights in Poland, the space for women’s NGOs is dramatically shrinking. 

Another issue is the open hostility towards the women’s movement as experienced in recent years. This issue was exacerbated following protests initiated in October 2020 after the anti-abortion decision of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal.  The atmosphere of intimidation has been rising, mostly as a result of police brutality during the protests, while numerous protesters have been detained, interrogated or charged. 

Replacing Gender Mainstreaming by Family Mainstreaming 

The government’s strategy is not only to push the Convention out of the Polish legal system, but also to replace it with new strategies based on so-called family values. As one of the main pillars on which the illiberal state has been erected, family mainstreaming has been playing a crucial role in various fields of state policy. However, the ambition of the Polish government to restore society based on traditional, catholic values goes far beyond national borders. The Polish government officially declares that it will support and promote the project of the International Convention of the Rights of the Family. This draft, challenging women’s and LGBT+ rights, is promoted as conservative response to the Istanbul Convention. The Polish government has already started diplomatic actions aiming to set up a coalition among countries which contest the Istanbul Convention, such the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary. 

Conclusion 

As these issues reveal, the Polish government’s efforts are more directed towards diminishing the Istanbul Convention than in implementing it. This means that any progress made in the fight against VAW, such as the introduction of the police restraining order, is made outside the Convention, rather than in its name. Violence against women does not exist within the Polish government’s agenda, and no systemic action have been taken in order to prevent it. The Polish government instead focuses on domestic violence, without addressing its gender dimension. Women’s suffering therefore rests hidden behind the problem of “violence against family”. This is consistent with the strategy of replacing gender mainstreaming with family mainstreaming, which has been promoted by Poland domestically and abroad. 

(This blog post is an edited version of the authors’ presentation at the Global Summit, hosted by the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism, on 14 January 2021). 

Katarzyna Sękowska-Kozłowska is Senior Researcher and Head of Department, Poznań Human Rights Centre, Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences 

Suggested citation: Katarzyna Sękowska-Kozłowska, ‘Implementation of the Istanbul Convention in the Shadow of Populism: The Case of Poland’ IACL-AIDC Blog (16 February 2021) https://blog-iacl-aidc.org/gender/2021/2/16/implementation-of-the-istanbul-convention-in-the-shadow-of-populism-the-case-of-poland.