| Abstract [eng] |
This study attempts to analyse impact of the Church on a particular Lithuania state’s decision not to ratify an international document – The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and domestic Violence, which is also known as the Istanbul Convention. The problem of this master's thesis is that Lithuanian Catholic Church has an influence on certain political decisions especially when it comes to moral policy issues related to values. The main object of this study is the Istanbul Convention, signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius in 2013, but still not ratified. The study does not aim to deconstruct the causal relationship and its (cause and effect) type. Also, it is important to identify the fundamental principles in The Constitution of Lithuania that define the relationship between the State and the Church. The Lithuanian Constitutional Court established the principle of state’s neutrality, secularity, and the principle of separateness of the State and the Church. For these reasons, the influence of the Lithuanian Catholic Church can be only one of the components of the decision not to ratify, and not an essential factor. Several objectives have been set to achieve the goal of the thesis. Firstly, it is important to find out how the current status of the Lithuanian Catholic Church in society was formed. Then, using theoretical and methodological tools, various official and unofficial sources have been used to reveal the measures by which the church can lead to non-ratification of the Convention in Lithuania. The search for factors which show how the Church can influence the political process will also seek to evaluate how these factors, conditions and contexts have contributed to the current status of the legal instrument. Finally, this will make it possible to assess whether the assumption about the Church's impact on the object is correct and relevant. The study shows that the Lithuanian Catholic Church plays an important role in society when discussing issues affecting the interests of the religious structure. It is evident that the principles of the Constitution which defines the configuration of the state-Church relations (“gentle” but not “strict” separation), international treaties with the Vatican, and informal relations with politicians allows for such involvement of the Church. Thus, The Istanbul Convention is no exception. Moral policy reforms in the formal space often face stagnation or delays, which enables stakeholders to take advantage of cultural and institutional opportunity structures. Although the Lithuanian Catholic Church does not have its representatives among parliamentarians and cannot directly participate in the formation of country policy, it is not strictly constrained. Therefore an informal institution can contribute to forming moral policy in the official space through institutional opportunity structures: international agreements, relations with parliamentary groups, disagreements in the Seimas, statements of authoritative ecclesiastical institutions, spreading of narrative and mobilization of public opinion in informal and virtual spaces. The sum of these factors may be important components in explaining the role of the Church in the decision of Lithuanian state policy makers not to ratify or postpone the ratification the Convention. However, the study confirms that due to the listed factors, the Lithuanian Catholic Church can be considered as a part of the reasons for non-ratification of the document. |
