Locating the Opposition to Istanbul Convention in the Multilayered Dynamics of Gendered Challenges: Reflections on an Actor- Centered Analysis on Eastern Europe: Politicizing Gender and Democracy in the Context of the Istanbul Contention, by Andrea Krizsan and Conny Roggeband, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

Over the past decade, anti-gender campaigns have been extended into politicized debates targeting the Istanbul Convention (IC) complicating and in some cases blocking its ratification. This review looks at the conceptual and explanatory framework and the inferences of Andrea Krizsan and Conny Roggeband’s comparative study focusing on the strategies and discourses of interlinked actors contesting the IC in Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, and Croatia. The well-structured analysis of the IC debates looks at the timelines and the framings of contestations, and identifies a reconfigured relationship between state and societal forces. Contextualizing national debates under the erosion of democratic institutions, the actor-centered approach of the study also looked into which areas within the VAW policy were impacted by the contestations. This comprehensive study makes a valuable contribution to the literature on democratic backsliding, VAW policies, anti-gender mobilizations, highlighting the centrality of the state and the resilience of the women’s movement.