The Istanbul Convention is a presidential treaty and the Cabinet itself cannot take steps to end the ratification process, said former Justice Minister and current independent MP Lucia Žitňanská on Monday. The Istanbul Convention, passed by the Council of Europe in 2011, is the most comprehensive international agreement on combating violence perpetrated against women. Last Friday, Parliament passed a resolution calling on the Cabinet not to continue the process of ratifying the Convention. The Slovak National Party (SNS), a ruling coalition member, introduced the motion for this resolution, arguing that "the Convention is in conflict with the constitutional definition of marriage, which is worded as a union between a man and a woman. One of the main shortcomings of the text is its definition of gender."
"To simplify it all, Parliament has just given a political order to the Cabinet to do something, but the Cabinet itself cannot do so because the Istanbul Convention is a presidential treaty. The Cabinet has negotiated it based on authorization from the president, and a member of the Cabinet has also signed it based on authorization from the president. If today the Parliament is asking the Cabinet to make an announcement toward the Council of Europe with legal effect, it can in fact only recommend to the president to authorize a member of the Cabinet to take such a step," wrote Žitňanská on social media. As the ex-justice minister added, the Convention will continue to live on, undoubtedly politically as well.
