Constitutional Court rules Istanbul Convention is unconstitutional

Eight of the 12 constitutional judges are of the opinion that the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence does not comply with the Bulgarian Basic Law, court announcement says on 27^th of July.

The decision of the judges was signed with four special opinions by Rumen Nenkov, Georgi Angelov, Konstantin Penchev and Philip Dimitrov.

The Istanbul Convention was withdrawn by parliament and the Constitutional Court was referred to on the case by 75 MPs from GERB.

The discussion of the Convention and the debates on its ratification were marked by strong public interest. The judges' decision came nearly half a year after the case was submitted to the Constitutional Court. Written standpoints and legal opinions have been presented by the President, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Health, the State Agency for Child Protection and a number of NGOs.

The Constitutional Court finds that, despite its undisputed positive aspects, the Convention is internally contradictory, and this contradiction creates a double-layer effect in it. Thus, the content of some of its provisions goes beyond the declared objectives of the Convention and its title.

According to the majority of constitutional judges, the ratification of the Council of Europe document would require that Bulgaria establish procedures that provide for legal recognition of gender other than biological. According to magistrates, if society loses the ability to distinguish between a woman and a man, the fight against violence against women remains only a formal but incomplete commitment.