Implementation of the Istanbul Convention in Poland and Germany - Prof. Dr. Boris Burghardt kommentiert.
Kommentar zur Rechtslage hinsichtlich der Strafbarkeit von sexuellen Nötigungen/Vergewaltigungen im deutschen und polnischen Strafrecht
23. März - 24. März
Partners:
Jagiellonian University Krakow, Poland
Universität Potsdam – MenschenRechtsZentrum
Institute of Legal Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences - Poznan Centre for Human Rights,
Poland
Scientific objectives
Adopted in 2011 in Istanbul, the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence
against women and domestic violence (hereinafter: Istanbul Convention) is one of the newest human rights
treaties. Poland acceded to the Istanbul Convention in 2015 and Germany, a few years later in 2018.
Consequently, the Istanbul Convention is relatively new to the legal systems of Poland and Germany.
The vast majority of experts in the field of human rights and the prevention of violence against women and
the protection of its victims agree that such a comprehensive convention is undoubtedly groundbreaking for
the strengthening of international human rights protection, establishing an innovative so-called gold standard
for combating violence against women, including domestic violence. At the same time, however, it is a
human rights treaty that is seen as controversial and even dangerous in many states and has therefore received
unprecedented attention from the political arena, the media and the public in those states. Among these
countries (including Turkey, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic) there is also Poland, where the current
authorities have even taken formal steps that may lead to a decision similar to the one taken in Turkey in
2021, i.e. denunciation of the Istanbul Convention. It seems, however, that the controversies in these states
are not so much due to the convention's provisions as a combination of global trends, manifested in the form
of extreme conservatism, populism and anti-democratic changes . The Istanbul Convention itself (and more
broadly: the problem of gender equality) serves primarily as a "scapegoat" and is being used instrumentally
in the political game.
The three circumstances mentioned above, i.e. 1) the complexity and innovativeness of the Istanbul
Convention in terms of combating and counteracting violence against women and domestic violence, 2) the
relatively short period of the Convention's implementation in both states, 3) the controversies connected with
it, combined with its instrumental use in many states, justify the need for a factual academic discussion on
its implementation and the impact it has had on the legal systems of interest to us (Polish and German). A
comparative approach will allow us to broaden the perspective, get away from strictly national optics, and
thus - we hope - present an objective picture of the situation.
To realize the above intentions, we plan to organize a 2-day scientific seminar, during which several papers
will be presented on many detailed issues. The seminar will result in a scientific monograph, which we plan
to publish in the fall of 2023.