⁍ Poland will take steps next week to withdraw from a European treaty on violence against women.

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⁍ Right-wing cabinet says treaty violates parents’ rights by requiring schools to teach children about gender.

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⁍ Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and its coalition partners closely align themselves with the Catholic Church.

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– Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice Party is making good on a promise to ditch an international treaty on violence against women, reports Reuters. The country’s justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, said Saturday that the Law and Justice Party is formally requesting to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, which it says violates parents’ rights by forcing schools to teach children about gender. “It contains elements of an ideological nature, which we consider harmful,” Ziobro said. On Friday, thousands of people protested in Warsaw and other cities against proposals to reject the treaty, which Poland ratified in 2015. “The aim is to legalise domestic violence,’ Magdalena Lempart, one of the protest organizers said at a march in Warsaw. Some protesters carried banners saying ‘PiS is the women’s hell’. The government says the treaty is disrespectful towards religion and requires teaching liberal social policies in schools, although in the past it has stopped short of a decision to quit. Ziobro, the justice minister, represents a smaller right-wing party within the ruling coalition. A government spokesman was not available on Saturday for comment on whether Ziobro’s announcement of plans to quit the treaty represented a collective cabinet decision. The World Health Organization says domestic violence has surged this year in Europe during months of lockdown aimed at fighting the coronavirus.