It is a great irony that the Turkish government has decided to withdraw from the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The pretext for this was the perception that the convention was being, to quote, “hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalise homosexuality” which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said was “incompatible” with Turkey’s “social and family values”. How such a measure could be so “hijacked” beats all reason, but clearly what is truly being primarily opposed by the President is Article 12 (5) which states that “Parties shall ensure that culture, custom, religion, tradition or so-called ‘honour’ shall not be considered as justification for any acts of violence covered by the scope of this Convention” – given that Turkish authorities have so often turned a blind eye to “honour killings” of women who break the country’s prevailing narrow and rigid moral codes. The Turkish government is not the only body struggling with the Convention, as the European Court of Justice has also been asked by the European Parliament to determine if it is in order for it to accede to the Istanbul Convention through two split decisions and also if it is free to accede to it either prior to all its Member States, or even if all Member States do not individually ratify it.