The Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine, according to the decision taken at the meeting on March 10, calls on the government to improve its own legislation on countering domestic violence and violence against women, as do other European countries that refused to ratify the Istanbul Convention.
This is reported by the CEPCU website.
Appeals on this issue were sent to the president of Ukraine, Prime Minister and foreign minister signed by Anatoly Gavrilyuk, Chairman of the CEPCU, senior bishop of the Center for Charismatic Christian Churches of Ukraine.
"The heads of Ukrainian Protestant Churches are convinced that it is impossible to ratify the Istanbul Convention due to the existing manipulation of the concept of "gender" and its new definition, which contradicts the legislation of Ukraine. We are talking about the introduction by the Istanbul Convention of the controversial concept of "gender", which goes beyond the generally accepted concept of "gender" in Ukraine and distorts the understanding of gender equality as equal rights of women and men, as well as the very content of the gender policy of the Ukrainian state," the CEPCU notes.
According to the CEPCU, gender ideology is dangerous for the future of Ukrainian society, given the catastrophic demographic situation in Ukraine. Therefore, religious figures oppose the fact that state authorities popularize gender self-identification and promote gender ideology in the educational process, contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine prohibiting state ideology.
The heads of Evangelical Churches supported the position of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, which proposed to take a number of practical steps to develop an effective mechanism for countering the problem of domestic violence.
In particular, religious figures suggest holding dialogue meetings between representatives of human rights circles and the religious environment to work out the shortcomings of the Istanbul Convention in a reasoned manner and develop common positions. The result of this work should be proposals aimed at improving the legislation of Ukraine, after the adoption of which it is necessary to constantly monitor its effectiveness in all regions of the country.