Hungary to ratify Istanbul Convention, Magyar announces

The Tisza Party is proposing a comprehensive set of measures aimed at combating all forms of violence against women and ensuring the safety and dignity of Hungarian women, which includes the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced Thursday in a video posted on Facebook.

Magyar said that until now, the Hungarian state stood idly by while women suffered in silence, thereby sending them the message that they simply had to endure it because “that’s the way life is.” “In recent years, we’ve heard it said that a woman belongs in the kitchen, that public life isn’t for women, and the former prime minister even said that ‘women’s issues’ aren’t something he concerns himself with. It’s as if Hungarian women were second-class citizens,” he said, before announcing that the government had put forward a comprehensive package of measures. This includes:

• the tightening of regulations on restraining orders,
• classifying the misuse of intimate recordings as a separate criminal offense,
• strengthening the protection of the right to sexual self-determination, and
• ensuring that victims of domestic violence receive special treatment in criminal proceedings.

He added that respect for women’s dignity is also an obligation in health care, which is why they are proposing

the modification of the so-called "foetal heartbeat" rule.

The Fidesz government introduced the regulation via a decree in 2022, which obliged all women seeking an abortion to “listen to the foetal heartbeat” before making the final decision about having the procedure. The new regulations will ensure that, after receiving the appropriate medical information and assistance, every woman will be able to decide for herself whether to make use of this option. In addition, assistance provided to pregnant women will be enhanced, and the various forms of support will be coordinated and made more accessible.

They will remove the requirement for a prescription for the morning-after pill so that emergency contraception will be available in a timely manner to all women. A set of measures aiming to combat period poverty will also be launched, the goal being to help women and girls with limited means to access these products.

Although mentioned last in the video, the most important move is that the Tisza faction is initiating the ratification of the Istanbul Convention with Parliament. This is an international agreement designed to prevent and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence, setting forth specific obligations for signatory states.

But what is the Istanbul Convention, and why is it so important?

The Istanbul Convention is a comprehensive international agreement on preventing and eliminating violence against women and domestic violence, with the goal of protecting victims and ending the impunity of perpetrators.

It expressly states that violence against women and domestic violence are not private matters. Among other things, it defines forced marriage, threatening harassment, forced abortion, and forced sterilization as criminal offenses. The treaty represented a breakthrough because it established that violence against women constitutes a violation of human rights and should be considered a form of discrimination. This means that

states can be held accountable if they fail to provide an adequate response to this type of violence.

The convention of the Council of Europe was adopted specifically with the objective of enabling a unified and thus more effective response to violence against women and children on a European level.

Although the Fidesz government signed the convention in 2014, it never ratified it. In May 2020, Hungarian parliament passed a resolution rejecting the Istanbul Convention, which provoked widespread outrage. The vote was initiated by Fidesz's coalition partner, the Christian Democratic People’s Party, while several members of parliament protested against rejecting the convention. The KDNP politicians who initiated the vote talked about countering a “destructive gender narrative” and illegal migration. They argued that ratifying the convention was unnecessary because the Hungarian legal system is already strict enough and does everything possible to protect women.

In recent years, women’s rights organizations have repeatedly sought dialogue with the previous government and have submitted numerous proposals for legislative amendments, policy packages, and comments on draft legislation to the relevant authorities—but without success. They rarely received genuine feedback on their proposals and in many cases, legal provisions directly contrary to those proposals were adopted.

On October 29 of this year, however, the Ministry of Justice held consultations on restraining orders and the elimination of violence against women with women’s rights organizations such as the NANE Association, the PATENT Association, and a delegation from the Hungarian Women’s Advocacy Alliance (Magyar Női Érdekérvényesítő Szövetség).