site.btaUnited Patriots Won't Back Istanbul Convention

Sofia, January 18 (BTA) - The United Patriots are against the Istanbul Convention and won't support it, United Patriots co-floor leader Volen Siderov told a news briefing in Parliament on Thursday.

Siderov said that the convention introduces unacceptable definitions of gender and opens the door to terms such as 'third gender' and 'same-sex marriage', which his party rejects categorically.

On behalf of his group Siderov urged GERB to withdraw the convention and not submit it to Parliament for ratification because of a number of discrepancies and violations prior to its signing.

He said that joining the convention by the Justice Ministry in 2016 and the adoption of the convention by the Council of Ministers on January 3 2018 was done in violation of the International Treaties Act.

MP Yavor Notev said adopting texts of the convention will involve changes to domestic legislation such as the Family Code.

Approached what the United Patriots will do if GERB don't heed to their call to withdraw the convention, Siderov said that a decision will be taken collectively. "We want to help GERB realize that the convention is not top of the agenda," said Siderov.

He recalled that the Council of Europe convention has not been signed by the UK, Ireland, Greece, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Slovakia, the Vatican, as well as the US, Canada, Japan and Mexico.

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BSP for Bulgaria on Thursday tabled amendments to the Criminal Code which bring into national legislation the requirements of the Istanbul Convention about measures against domestic violence, said BSP leader Kornelia Ninova.

"We don't accept domestic violence in any of its forms and we propose a real solution to these problems through changes to the Bulgarian legislation," said Ninova. BSP has proposed that domestic violences should be treated as a publicly prosecutable offence instead of privately prosecutable offence. The party also suggests that aggravating circumstances are introduced for persons who have committed domestic violence. Next week, the BSP will propose the establishment of crisis centres against domestic violences in all regional cities.