Why joining Biarritz Partnership is dangerous

Ukraine has joined the Biarritz Partnership. Photo: UOJ

A few days ago, Ukraine received the official status of a participant in the so-called "Biarritz Partnership", which aroused enthusiasm of fighters for the rights of all kinds of minorities and fear of holders of traditional values that the rights of the majority would be infringed. Many Orthodox media resources, and not only they, have already expressed serious concern about this. Why is this Biarritz Partnership so dreaded? Let's figure it out.

What is the Biarritz Partnership?

Everyone knows that in the world there is a certain community of the richest and most influential countries called the "Big Seven", G7. A much smaller number of people know that this is not an international organization but simply informal annual meetings at which opinions are exchanged, on the basis of which general statements are made that have no legal force. Very few people know that the G7 format is considered an outdated format of international communication that does not have much efficiency. It is being replaced by other formats, for example, the G20.

However, the G7 meetings continue to be held, and in 2018, when Canada was the informal chairman of the G7, the Prime Minister of this country Justin Trudeau created an Advisory Council on Gender Equality, which was supposed to study this problem and present its views. In 2019, the G7 chairmanship passed to France, whose president not only extended the work of the Advisory Council for the period of the French presidency, but also renewed its composition and terms of reference. The Council has 35 members, including three Nobel Peace Prize winners, representatives of various non-governmental organizations, private enterprises, governments, journalists and artists. The Advisory Council is not a state or international public-law body, and the representatives of governments who are members of the Council have the status of individuals rather than representatives of the state. Also in 2019, this Advisory Board at the G7 meeting in Biarritz, France, presented two papers on gender equality.

• “Recommendations for the Promotion of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Girls and Women”
• "Call to Action"

On the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron, the leaders of the G7 agreed that it was time to take the fight for gender equality to a new level and decided to create an international coalition to fight gender inequality. This initiative is called the Biarritz Partnership for Gender Equality or, in short, the Biarritz Partnership. The G7 countries under this Partnership have pledged to adopt and implement a progressive legislative framework to ensure gender equality, as well as to promote the idea of joining the Biarritz Partnership for other countries.

In Ukraine, the issue of acceding to the Biarritz Partnership was raised by the country's first lady, Elena Zelenskaya.

Speaking on December 10, 2019 at the "3rd Ukrainian Women's Congress" forum, she made a corresponding appeal to the Head of State and the Cabinet of Ministers. And it went well. In May 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers approved such an accession, and in September it took place officially. Ukraine has undertaken the following commitments:

• To develop barrier-free public space friendly to families with children and people with limited mobility;
• To teach children the principles of equality between women and men;
• To prevent violence;
• To reduce the gender pay gap;
• To create more opportunities for men to take care of children.

There seems to be nothing wrong about all this ... Moreover, E. Zelenskaya, urging to join the Biarritz Partnership, said, “First of all, we are talking about the future of Ukrainians and Ukrainian women, about families who should be comfortable about their work-life balance, about the need to create a children-friendly community with appropriate inclusive infrastructure, family and child rooms. Barrier-free space is, in addition, ensuring decent living conditions for people with disabilities, where the gender component must also be taken into account."

However, the President's wife kept silent about what was contained in the texts of the documents of the Advisory Council on Gender Equality, although she might not have read them at all.

What awaits the participants in the "Partnership"?

The Biarritz Partnership offers affiliated members the following:

• to ensure gender parity in national, ministerial and representative delegations;
• to provide for quotas for women (reserved seats) in national parliaments;
• to support NGOs, feminist groups and organizations that are necessary to achieve gender equality;
• to provide comprehensive education about sexuality and healthy relationships in and out of school;
• to ensure access to modern contraception and safe abortion services;
• to eliminate gender stereotypes and social norms, including ideas of masculinity, which are harmful to all genders;
• to observe the principle of consent, recognizing that sex without consent is rape, marital rape should be criminalized;
• to form a gender-based budget;
• to encourage men to do 50% of household chores, including childcare;
• to make parental leave available for same-sex parents.

As you can see, upon closer examination, the activities of the "partnership" are not as harmless as they seem at first glance: here we have sex education in schools, popularization of abortion, and the thesis about the "harm" of masculinity for men, and even equalizing the rights of same-sex partnerships with traditional families by raising children.

In the sphere of state administration, it is planned to introduce artificial quotas for women to occupy leading positions, which in fact is discrimination, but only for men.

Upon closer examination, the activities of the "partnership" are not as harmless as they seem at first glance: here we have sex education in schools, popularization of abortion, and the thesis about the "harm" of masculinity for men, and even equalizing the rights of same-sex partnerships with traditional families by raising children.

As part of the fight against domestic violence against women, measures are proposed that can be used for abuse. For example, the principle of consent to sexual intercourse, without which such an act is recognized as rape and is punishable by imprisonment for rather a long period. The marital status is not taken into account in this case. The wife can endlessly blackmail her husband by threatening to send him to jail. At the same time, whistle-blowing is strongly encouraged. Not only a police officer or a doctor, who suspects an act of domestic violence, should report it, but, for example, a pizza delivery man or a courier.

Anything that contradicts gender ideology, and this is primarily religious norms, must be eradicated not just somehow but by taking "bold actions". In the text of the document it sounds like this: "Transformation of cultural norms and customs by bold actions, ambitious policies and means enshrined in laws." The idea of masculinity for some reason is recognized as harmful "for both sexes" and must also be rooted out.

To implement the principles of the Biarritz Partnership, the state should allocate money for this from the state budget (0.7% of gross national income), change its legislation, as well as “Create a specialized independent body responsible for receiving complaints of gender discrimination.”

In light of the aforesaid, there is something to worry and raise alarm about. The Biarritz Partnership foresees the imposition of gender ideology, sexual promiscuity (under the name "realization of sexual health"), abortion (under the name "safe termination of pregnancy") and so on from the school bench.

The Biarritz Partnership foresees the imposition of gender ideology, sexual promiscuity (under the name "realization of sexual health"), and abortion (under the name "safe termination of pregnancy") on society from the school bench.

One should also pay attention to the following.

First, all these anti-Christian actions are beautifully hidden between quite plausible measures. The "Partnership", in particular, implies parental leave for men, creating conditions for the movement and socialization of disabled people, improving health care and many other good things. Therefore, critics of the Biarritz Partnership can always be accused of not pitying people with disabilities or against the development of the health care system.

And secondly, the Biarritz Partnership itself is an example of how states, contrary to the principles of democracy, are imposed an ideology alien to the people. This problem was, in particular, raised by Bishop Victor (Kotsaba) of Baryshevka in his article "Is UN Secretary General against the Patriarchal Male Dominance?" where he described how, with the help of non-governmental organizations, something is imposed on society, with which this society does not agree.

How individuals force countries to change their laws

It was mentioned above that the G7 is not an international organization and it does not make decisions that are legally binding in international law. Despite this, the G7 creates an Advisory Council, which has a status similar to a non-governmental organization and consists of individuals. These persons did not participate in the elections, the people did not delegate power to them, did not give them the mandate to carry out certain programs. However, this Advisory Board formulates the principles according to which states commit themselves to change their national legislation.

Not only a referendum but even a public discussion was not held on the issue of joining the Biarritz Partnership.

It must be remembered that according to the Ukrainian Constitution, the only source of power is the people and only the people can make decisions on such fundamental issues as gender or traditional ideology. However, not only a referendum but even a public discussion was not held on the issue of accession to the Biarritz Partnership.

Unfortunately, unbiblical understanding of gender, family relationships and the gift of life is aggressively imposed on our people, as well as on the people of other countries. The time is probably not far off when adhering to the words of Scripture will be deemed as a criminal offense. And then the words of the Savior will become very relevant: "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels" (Mark 8:38).

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