A wave of opposition in Central Europe to so-called “gender ideology” has led Bulgaria on 15 February, and then Slovakia yesterday (22 February) to oppose ratifying the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

The developments highlight widespread resistance among the more socially conservative countries of the former eastern bloc to the liberal values of wealthier Western Europe.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico yesterday said he refused to ratify the Istanbul Convention because he considers it at odds with the country’s constitutional definition of marriage as a heterosexual union.

Last week Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov withdrew from parliament a motion to ratify the Istanbul Convention, faced with ever-growing opposition, first from its coalition partner, the United Patriots, the opposition socialists, and more broadly, with the population.

Just over half of the members of the Council of Europe have ratified the human rights watchdog’s 2011 Istanbul Convention, which is the world’s first binding instrument to prevent and combat violence against women, from marital rape to female genital mutilation.

The Convention is the first international treaty containing a definition of “gender” as “social roles, behaviours, activities and characteristics that a particular society considers appropriate for women and men” – according to Art. 3 of the Convention. Detractors claim that this opens the door to legalising gay marriage and promoting homosexuality in school by so-called promoters of “gender ideology”. Read more via Eurativ