A Council of Europe convention on combatting violence against women has become the first international treaty to describe gender as a social construct meaning the roles of men and women have no biological basis.

Article 3 (c) of the treaty, entitled “Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence”, reads: “’gender’ shall mean the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men”.

The convention was agreed yesterday by the Council’s Committee of Ministers.

The concept that gender is a “social construct” has been developed by radical feminists to argue that there are no fundamental differences between men and women.

The Committee comprises the Foreign Affairs Ministers of all the member states, including Ireland, or their permanent diplomatic representatives (known as Ministers’ Deputies) in Strasbourg.

The document was adopted by the Deputies, acting on behalf of the Ministers. Ireland’s representative was Ms Margaret Hennessy, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.

Member States will begin to ratify the document at the ministerial session on 11 May in Istanbul

Luca Volontè, an Italian representative on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said that the provision “has ruined the text of a convention that could be very important”.

Speaking to Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-Fam), he said: “Defending women and combating discrimination is a necessity, but this text makes the situation worse and creates new barriers and discriminations.”

The definition is at odds with the definition in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court – which this new convention cites.

The Rome Statute states that: “For the purposes of this Statute, it is understood that the term “gender” refers to the two sexes, male and female, within the context of society. The term ‘gender’ does not indicate any meaning different from the above.”

Dr. Patrick Fagan, family scholar at the US-based Family Research Council, said that the use of a social construct definition of gender is “evidence of thought so divorced from reality as to be a form of mental illness, possible only to those who have spent years being miseducated in the upper levels of the modern university.”

The implications of the new definition were “massive” as “it puts all forms of sexuality, including deviance, on the same level,” Dr Fagan said.

At a UN meeting last month, the EU staunchly resisted a reference to the ICC definition of gender despite wide support for the proposal.

The EU delegation claimed the ICC definition was unnecessary because everyone was clear on the definition of gender.

As negotiations dragged on, one delegate rebuffed the EU explanation retorting, “If it’s really not a problem, then why can’t we plainly state what it means?”

Further to the redefinition of gender, the new convention adds controversial new non-discrimination categories based on gender, sexual orientation and gender identity.  

According to an explanatory note on the convention, these terms include “categories of individuals such as transgender or transsexual persons, cross-dressers, transvestites and other groups of persons that do not correspond to what society has established as belonging to ‘male’ or ‘female’ categories.”