If you live in Europe, your country is likely a member of the Council of Europe, a 46-member body founded in 1949 that ostensibly promotes democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. The council has had a profound impact on international law through frameworks including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Istanbul Convention on violence against women, which are now embedded in the laws of European states.
One of the council’s latest initiatives, the Gender Equality Strategy 2024-2029, should have been a clear roadmap for women’s rights. Instead, it is a fog of ideological confusion, where the meaning of “gender” drifts between reality and ideology, leaving women’s rights at the mercy of wordplay.
The Council of Europe now pushes “gender equality” beyond its original meaning, blurring biological sex with socially constructed gender while expanding to include diverse gender identities and expressions.
This isn’t a mistake—it’s a deliberate ideological shift. The strategy enshrines gender-identity ideology into policy under the guise of women’s rights. In this new world, gender is both a harmful social construct and an innate identity—something to be dismantled and protected all at once.
Perhaps the most troubling part of the strategy is its treatment of “gender-critical” feminists—those who argue that biological sex matters, especially in spaces where women’s safety and dignity are at stake. The Council of Europe lumps them together with “anti-gender” activists, in order to associate them with far-right politics and reactionary views on women’s rights. The document claims that gender-critical narratives are used to “justify discriminatory practices” and “undermine the understanding of gender as a social construct.” The message is clear: Only the Council of Europe can say what makes a woman and redefine gender, and any feminist who disagrees will be cast as an extremist.
The Council of Europe is peddling an ideological agenda that no longer serves women. And as Europe sleepwalks into a world where words have no meaning and women’s rights are whatever fashionable delusion is currently in favor, the council will have played its part in making sure women pay the price.
Source: How Europe Lost the Plot on Women’s Rights | Compact