by Zsófia Fülöp (magyarnarancs.hu)
“The Istanbul Convention is just political hysterics.” “This is a Convention basically attacking the traditional family model, it tries to implement gender philosophy, so to speak.” “Non-ratification has political reasons, as the approach of the Convention (…) is in a stark opposition with the migration policy of the Hungarian government.”
These are some arguments from various members of the Hungarian government on why Hungary does not ratify the Istanbul Convention. We might debate whether anything would change with ratification, but it is a fact that many violent crimes are committed against women in Hungary. On Women’s Day 2020 news portal Index asked for statistics from the police and from the Ministry of the Interior. These said that in 2019 1464 women were abused, over 200 were raped and 58 were killed.
The Istanbul Convention is a convention of the Council of Europe on the prevention and tackling of gender-based and domestic violence. The possibility to join the Convention was opened on March 11th 2011 in Istanbul. Until March last year 45 states had signed it, including Hungary (in 2014) and also the European Union (but excluding Russia and Azerbaijan). However, it only becomes valid in a state when it is ratified. The first country to do so was Turkey, then 33 more countries followed suit between 2013 and 2019. Only 6 EU Member States have not ratified it: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary.
The competent Hungarian ministries took part in phrasing the text of the Convention and they did sign it immediately. Already this compels a country not to jeopardize the aims of the Convention, so it does have legal consequences, but in order to make it part of national legislation, the Convention must be ratified, an international lawyer explains.
The government party’s reason for refusing ratification is clear from the quotes above: they have problem with the word ‘gender’ and the mention of ‘migration’. Because what the Ministry of Justice translates as ‘sex’ is really ‘gender’ in the original, defined in the preamble as “the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men”.
The Hungarian government claims this is an infiltration of ‘gender ideology’ into Hungarian legislation, which tries to ‘blur’ gender roles. Moreover, the Convention mentions that at schools there should be education about equality between men and women – this is also criticized. A mention of migration is another reason (or rather excuse) for Hungarian politicians: there is a whole chapter in the Convention about abused women who do not live in their home country and this is something their abuser uses to control them. The text also says that victims cannot be sent back to their country of origin if their lives are in danger there – the government claims this is contrary to Hungarian migration policies.
“These are demagogical excuses”,
claims Júlia Spronz, head of Patent Legal Aid, “they can be used to shock the people, but obviously this is not the real reason. In 2017 the government was still willing to ratify the convention, but since then there has been no political will to do it.” Children’s rights expert Szilvia Gyurkó, founder of Hintalovon Child Rights Foundation says one reason Hungary does not ratify the Convention is that it would mean creating services that we at present have no personal, physical and financial resources for. Women’s organizations estimate that duties around and after ratification would cost about 8 billion Hungarian Forints.
What are these services? Information and awareness campaigns, education, training for professionals, the creation of shelters and hotlines. “The trainings should cover all the areas dealing with the protection of women and families, such as law, health care, social sciences, as well as the work of the police, the prosecution and the courts”, an international lawyer says, who has seen many good practices in countries that have already ratified the Convention. “They have created state-funded shelters, strengthened the victim protection system, they set up multidisciplinary expert teams and hotlines accessible round the clock.”
We cannot claim that Hungary lacks all of this: we have several 24/7 hotlines, and Minister of Justice Judit Varga said in January that only the Miskolc Victim Support center gets 12 thousand calls a year. However, these hotlines and centers do not specialize on abused women but on victims of crime in general. Ministry of Justice data says last year over 2600 people visited these centers, but only 100 of them were victims of domestic violence. Judit Varga promised to spend 600 million Forints in 2020 on developing the victim support centers and on creating new ones.
The government also claims that Hungarian law already includes all the guarantees and protections that are necessary to help these victims, hence there is no need to ratify the Istanbul Convention, as it does not offer anything more than what is already there in Hungarian legislation. The experts we asked do not contradict this, but they add: the fact that a law exists does not mean it is properly enforced. “The Hungarian Criminal Code is very strict, but that does not make us the safest country in the EU”, Borbála Iványi, lawyer of the Helsinki Committee, says. In her opinion stricter sentences may not be the solution; research suggests that it is not the extent of the sentence but its inevitability and the speed of the process that act as a deterrent for potential perpetrators.
“In the present legislative environment there could be efficient protection for victims. But laws must be enforced, and their spirit followed”, Szilvia Gyurkó emphasizes. The Istanbul Convention pays special attention to education and the sensitization of professionals. Around 2002-2005 this was quite functional in Hungary; Gyurkó remembers that they held many trainings for the police and social services. However, this enthusiasm had receded by 2007-2008. “The police and the Ministry of Human Capacities still participate in various campaigns, often allied with NGOs, but the awareness and attitudes of professionals have not changed much. Those who are called to a case are often not aware of the dynamics of domestic violence and easily end up blaming the victim. There are some professionals who offer a ray of hope, but structural changes are still missing.”
Júlia Spronz has similar experiences. She feels that recently, perhaps due to a series of violent child murders, the police have been more active in tackling gender-based and domestic violence, for instance they issue more restraining orders. She still thinks, however, that court practices are discriminatory. “With the ratification of the Istanbul Convention – which includes mandatory and accountable measures, so it carries more weight than other human rights documents – all aspects of women’s rights would improve. This Convention is not just a symbolic declaration but a practical guide to efficient protection for victims and successful punishment for perpetrators.”
The Convention also declares that gender-based and domestic violence must be tackled on a systemic level. The issue does not only affect the police and the court but also the Public Guardianship Authority, doctors, nurses etc. In 2018 criminal lawyer Renáta Garai, who works for the National Institute of Criminology, examined the documentation of domestic violence cases that ended with a legally binding court sentence, and in 2019 she examined the cases where the charge was rejected or the investigation terminated. “If a case does get into court, usually the perpetrator is found guilty and punished. However, the way these cases have been qualified and the help the abused, including the children, have received is rather questionable”, she sums up.
Garai also sees an improvement in police attitudes. Last year she held several trainings at the national and several local police headquarters on “partner violence” (the official Hungarian term for domestic violence), which has been a separate legal category in Hungary since 2013 with harsher punishment than other violent acts, comprising not only physical but also verbal and economic violence. Her experience is that police often did apply this category, so special attention should be paid to this issue in their training.
Childcare services could also help to get more cases into court, as gender-based violence is closely connected to child abuse and endangering minors, and often these things happen behind closed doors, with no witnesses. “If the Public Guardianship Authority, the pediatrician, the nurse or the teacher did not regard themselves as outsiders but as parts of the system and thus felt compelled to and did signal the abuse, prosecution would be much easier, too”, Renáta Garai says. “The problem is that they are often not aware of how far their competences go, when it is that they have to signal. It is not physical signs and injuries one must look for but signal if the child is in danger.”
„In Austria, where the Convention has been ratified, victims have access to free psychological and legal counseling. Romania also has implemented successful measures, such as harsher punishments for crimes committed against certain victims, specifically mentioning family members”, Garai continues, adding that even countries which have not ratified the Convention have good practices. For instance, in Slovakia much emphasis is laid on teaching materials, they invite teachers to actively intervene in case they find out about any domestic violence, and – just like in Austria – they have a special ombudsperson for children’s rights.
Szilvia Gyurkó thinks that the ratification of the Istanbul Convention would also be a political stance on the part of the Hungarian government, as by this they would declare that “no form of violence is acceptable, and all forms are preventable.” Even if the Istanbul Convention cannot force governments to take specific measures, “it can call attention to problems and duties, holds governments accountable and can serve as a reference point. But we cannot even guess how seriously the Hungarian government would take it.”
On December 19th 2019 members of the opposition, led by EMP Csaba Molnár (Democratic Coalition) submitted a bill on this issue, but it has not been discussed. However, when on May 4th the Christian Democrats submitted a bill on rejecting the Istanbul Convention, the Parliament discussed and passed it the very next day. This way, the leaders of Hungary have now taken a definite stance AGAINST the Convention they themselves signed a few years ago.
