The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, which Roustam Badassian, Armenian Minister of Justice referred the issue to in July 2019, stated that "no provisions of the Istanbul Convention can be considered contrary to the [Armenian] Constitution", in an opinion delivered on Friday 11 October.
The issue goes beyond the case of Armenia alone, as several other Council of Europe member states - some of whom are also members of the European Union - are challenging this Convention to prevent and combat all forms of violence against women.
For Armenia, Russia, Moldova and Ukraine, but also Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, this text goes against the "traditional family structure" by opening the door to the promotion of homosexuality. They see the Istanbul Convention as a Trojan horse of the so-called gender ideology, aimed at denying the biological differences between men and women.
The Council of Europe's constitutional law experts stress that "the Convention clearly makes a difference between ‘sex’ as a biological reality and ‘gender’ as social expectations linked to this reality". According to them, this text "does not include any definition of the family" and "does not oblige State Parties to legalise same-sex marriage". They added: "Therefore the Convention does not contradict national constitutions definition of the family – and this holds true not only for Armenia, but also for other European Countries".
Opened for signature in 2011, the Istanbul Convention entered into force in August 2014. 34 countries have signed and ratified it, including 22 EU Member States. The EU signed this convention in June 2017, but has not yet ratified it. In April, the European Parliament decided to ask the EU Court of Justice for an opinion on the compatibility of full membership with the Treaties (see EUROPE 12228/4). (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)