Violence is being glorified because of the Istanbul Convention

The State of Latvia has not ratified the Istanbul Convention, because it conceals the concept of gender as a social construct and a threat to an understanding of the concept of family as is defined in our Constitution. Proponents of same-sex marriage are now mobilized to make the convention binding on the Latvian state, and the method they use is to highlight violence against women and to conceal violence against men.

The full title of the Istanbul Convention is the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

It is a document adopted in 2011. The first objective of the Convention is to "protect women against all forms of violence, and prevent, prosecute and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence". Parties of the Convention must also guarantee special protection for the elderly, pregnant women, children, persons with mental disabilities, as well as gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people and drug addicts. In fact, the only group in society not covered by the protection of the Convention is heterosexual men. This aspect is important because it is a misconception that women are more likely to be victims of violence. Men are more likely to commit crimes, men are more likely to sit in prison - in 2019, 90.7% of prisoners were men. And men are also more often killed, beaten, robbed and mutilated. More often than women. Women are more likely to be raped.

Men are more likely to do crime and suffer

From a statistical point of view, violence of men against men is a bigger problem. Statistics compiled by the Information Center of the Ministry of Interior show that a total of 11,542 natural persons were recognized as victims last year. 5681 male and 4139 female. When thinking about physical violence it is worth looking at the calculations made by the Central Statistical Bureau:

• victims of intentional murders - men 51.2%, women 48.8%;
• victims of intentional serious injuries - men 78%, women 22%;
• victims of sexual violence - men 14.8%, women 85.1%.

In terms of gender representation, the most common crimes among women are theft, murder and drugs. Among men - rape, hooliganism, robbery.

The Istanbul Convention does not address violence in general. It addresses only one narrow aspect of violence: domestic violence, where the perpetrator, as in all other forms of crime, is more often male. However, the victim, as in the case of sexual crimes, is more often a woman.

There are no exact statistics, because there is no special article in the Criminal Law on such an offense - domestic violence. On average, the police record 8,000 family conflicts a year, but this does not mean that violence has been present in all conflicts, nor does it mean that a man is to blame.

Hospital visits are becoming less common

Last year, a larger study on violence and gender statistics was commissioned by the Latvian Council of Science - “Violence against women and children in Latvia. Situation report on statistics and publicly available quantitative data 2019”. It contains a very interesting table created by the Ministry of Welfare entitled “Victims of violence who seek hospital help”. In 2008, 3,474 victims of violence sought help in Latvian hospitals. 438 had been injured in domestic disputes. Of these, 311 women and 127 men. Over the next eight years, the criminogenic situation has clearly improved and domestic violence has also diminished, as long as hospitals are considered a reliable source of data. In 2016, 802 victims of violence went to the hospital. So, four times less. And 100 people had been injured in domestic disputes. Of these, 65 are women and 35 are men.

However, campaigns against domestic violence use different data - older, but more dramatic - from a 2014 EU-wide survey. Regarding Latvia, it says that 38.6% (!) of women have experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of 15, but 6.3% - in the last 12 months, and 32.1% of these women had not told anyone. These survey statistics are further used to justify the need to ratify the Istanbul Convention with all its strange references to the possibility of multiple genders or unconventional sexual orientation.

This is a political problem

It should be recalled that the Ministry of Justice opposes the Convention, considering that its ratification will pave the way for the legalization of gay marriage. Because then the ban on marrying two husbands or two wives will be able to be treated as discrimination by the state. Also, the Ministry of Welfare, with the change of political leadership, now no longer intends to push for ratification of the convention. However, the New Unity party (Jaunā Vienotība) represented by Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, as well as the party alliance Development/For! (Attīstībai/Par!) consider this a crucial issue that is being raised at all political levels. Here is what Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has just reported:

“Violence against women and girls, including domestic violence is a violation of human rights. Action must be taken to eradicate physical, sexual and psychological violence against women. The Istanbul Convention is a valuable tool in achieving this goal."

Sandra Kalniete, Member of the European Parliament, also advertises the Istanbul Convention: “One year ago, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on all European Union member states to ratify the convention aimed at ending violence against women without delay. In Latvia, the ratification process during the year has been nudged from its dormant state, and we are awaiting a comprehensive assessment of the Constitutional Court on the compliance of the international document with the Latvian fundamental laws. I sincerely hope that the qualified opinion of the Constitutional Court will be a sufficient argument for the deputies of the Latvian Saeima to confirm their wish to eradicate domestic violence and violence against women.”

Pressure on the Constitutional Court

The case mentioned by the MEP in the Constitutional Court is also the main reason why the glorification of domestic violence is taking place in the liberal and also in the state media and why there is a complete lack of interest in incomparably more common types of violence.

The Constitutional Court has initiated a case regarding the compliance of the Convention with the Constitution after a submission signed by 21 deputies of the Saeima. They want to prove through a court that the Istanbul Convention is not in conflict with the Constitution and therefore can be ratified. Here are the names of these politicians:

Anda Čakša; Inese Lībiņa-Egnere; Ainars Latkovskis; Rihards Kozlovskis; Ojārs Ēriks Kalniņš; Andrejs Judins; Atis Lejiņš; Arvils Ašeradens; Daniels Pavļuts; Artūrs Toms Plešs; Dace Bluķe; Mārtiņš Šteins; Mārtiņš Staķis; Mārtiņš Bondars; Inese Voika; Marija Golubeva; Dace Rukšāne-Ščipčinska; Vita Anda Tērauda; Inese Ikstena; Andris Skride; Ilmārs Dūrītis. The deadline for preparing the case is January 4.

It should be noted that Latvia is not the only country where there is skepticism about this document. Five more Member States still have not ratified the Istanbul Convention: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia. Poland, on the other hand, intends to withdraw from the convention.

Violence must be combated in all its forms and only two genders must be protected from it. The Istanbul Convention is written for other purposes.