Avetik Chalabyan: 'The Current Government Must Respond to Public Opinion Regarding the Istanbul Convention'

Avetik Chalabyan, the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the 'Arar' Foundation, wrote on his Facebook page: 'I want to start the week with an important development. Just before the weekend, the Armenian Apostolic Church issued a statement urging the Armenian authorities to refrain from ratifying the Istanbul Convention. The Church's statement includes detailed references and justifications regarding the points of the convention that are not directly related to women or families, and under the guise of these, attempts to introduce the conditional idea of a 'third gender' and the complete legal equality of biological sexes.

Last week, the Public Council of Armenia, examining the appropriateness of ratifying the Istanbul Convention, concluded that Armenia's national legislation, particularly the 'Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence,' already provides sufficient grounds for combating violence against women, and instead of ratifying this problematic convention, the government should focus on fully implementing its own legislation. I should note that in February of this year, a similar conclusion was reached by the Slovak authorities, who, while refusing to ratify the convention, also announced that they would take all necessary steps to strengthen provisions in national legislation that prevent violence against women.

Thus, at this moment, a prevailing public opinion is beginning to take shape in Armenia, reinforced by the clearly expressed positions of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Public Council of Armenia, several political parties, and civil society organizations, stating that the ratification of the Istanbul Convention is not appropriate. Instead, the focus should be on strengthening national legislation and legal practice. At the same time, proponents of ratifying the convention have not yet substantiated their positions and have not presented irrefutable arguments to the public regarding what the ratification of this convention would offer to the real Armenian woman, child, or family.

In this situation, the current government must respond to public opinion or directly refuse to ratify the convention signed by previous authorities, or put this issue to a referendum, and take further actions strictly in accordance with the collective will of the people.'