The government in Poland led by the Law and Justice party (PiS) and characterized by its anti-genderism and right-wing populist politics, is framing its opposition to the Istanbul Convention in human rights language. This leads to a puzzling occurrence of the women’s rights Convention being opposed with rights rhetoric. This puzzle was addressed in the thesis by investigating how the PiS-led government is mimicking human rights rhetoric in their opposition to the Convention. That was done in accordance with the ‘Rights as Weapons’ theory, developed by Bob Clifford. Findings revealed that the PiS-led government in their right rhetoric denies the necessity, effectiveness, and apoliticality of the Convention, invokes fears, presents Polish society as victims of 'gender ideology,' and puts forward opposing rights to those enshrined in the Convention. Moreover, their rights rhetoric heavily relies on fear, misinformation, and misinterpretation of the Convention.

The diploma thesis Antifeminism in Contemporary Teaching of the Roman Catholic Church examines the mechanisms which shape the identity of women in Roman Catholic teachings. This is the starting point for the subsequent constitution of gender order, i.e. the way the relationship between man and woman is constructed, and in which woman is subordinated to man. To support the subordinate position of women, Roman Catholic theology implemented theory of complementarity into its teachings. This inequality provides an important underpinning of gender-based violence. Feminist movement and feminist theology, such as that of Mary Daly brought new analytical tools in the 1960s and 1970s to understand the functioning of the social mechanisms that lead to women's subordination. These tools are, in particular, feminist critique and perspective, critique of power relations and of androcentrism, and a specifically feminist understanding of woman's identity. The Istanbul Convention, with its perspective that rejects inequality, promotes criticism of power relations and describes violence against women as gender-based violence, is conceptually in accordance with the methods and goals of the feminist movement as well as with democratic principles. In particular, it agrees with them on the issue of gender-based...