"The Austrian presidency needs to exert pressure on the other 11 EU [European Union] countries to ratify the Istanbul Convention so that the [EU] as a whole can then join the Convention (with approval from the European Council)" [1] Ulrike Lunacek, a former member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Austria, published this tweet on 8 March 2018, from which it becomes clear that the ultimate goal of this process is for all EU member states to ratify the Istanbul Convention (IC) separately. Once this process is complete, the EU as a whole will ratify the convention. Doesn’t that sound strange – ‘each country separately and subsequently’ and ‘the EU as a whole’? Is there more to the IC than mere ‘gender ideology’? We observe different power structures, organisations and individuals who advocate for the IC. To answer the previous questions, we need to know who they are and why they became advocates of the IC. A. The European Union: The most important link The EU is ...