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| - Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Thursday he asked Poland's top court to rule whether a European treaty on fighting violence against women was in line with the EU-member's constitution. Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro on Monday set in motion the process to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, insisting it contained provisions that are "ideological in nature". Spearheaded by the Council of Europe, the treaty is the world's first binding instrument to prevent and combat violence against women, from marital rape to female genital mutilation. The Polish move triggered outcry at home and abroad, with the EU and the Council of Europe voicing alarm and regret and thousands protesting in Poland. A government spokesman and representatives of Morawiecki's right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party initially said there was no "official, unequivocal decision" on the proposed withdrawal. Morawiecki said on Thursday that he had asked "the Constitutional Tribunal to determine whether the Istanbul Convention is in line with the constitution," and thanked Ziobro and others for voicing "doubts about certain provisions". The convention was signed by a previous centrist Polish government in 2012, followed by ratification in 2015. But the PiS government, which opposes LGBTQ rights and is close to Poland's powerful Catholic church, has questioned provisions of the treaty claiming it requires schools to teach gender studies. Ziobro previously dismissed the treaty as "an invention, a feminist creation aimed at justifying gay ideology". The Council of Europe, the continent's oldest human rights organisation, insists that the Istanbul Convention's "sole objective" is to combat violence against women and domestic violence. Although it does not explicitly mention gay marriage, that has not diminished the backlash in conservative Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The European Commission said on Sunday that it "regrets that such an important matter has been distorted by misleading arguments in some member states". The commission would "continue its efforts to finalise the EU's accession" to the convention by ratifying it, having signed the pact in 2017. The PiS government has already clashed with the EU Commission over controversial reforms to its judicial system, including the Constitutional Tribunal. Critics insist the PiS has stacked the body with judges loyal to the party. mas/amj/ach/bsp
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