The EU is meant to become a safer place for women from Sunday (1 October), as the Istanbul Convention enters into force in Europe.
The treaty is to combat violence against women by obliging the EU’s 27 member states to impose “dissuasive” criminal penalties, train professionals to help victims, and pay for awareness-raising campaigns.
Originally crafted by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and adopted by the EU by a majority vote in May, all 27 countries have signed it but six have yet to ratify its provisions at national level — Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia.
The Czechs and Latvians are on the way to doing so.
Bulgaria says the treaty’s definition of “gender” is at odds with its constitution. Hungary’s illiberal prime minister Viktor Orbán has attacked it on similar grounds.
And if Robert Fico, a pro-Russian populist, comes to power in this weekend’s elections it would bode ill for ratification prospects in Bratislava.
That puts them at odds with the European mainstream, at a time when women’s rights are in the spotlight — not least in Spain, the current EU presidency, which has seen an uproar over a botched anti-rape law and a non-consensual kiss by a male football boss at the women’s soccer World Cup.
Andrew Rettman