Rights experts urged Türkiye to reverse decision on women rights accord
Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 28th July. UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem,on Wednesday said that Türkiye’s decision to ditch a landmark international treaty to tackle violence against women and girls, could significantly set back efforts to tackle the problem.
She warned on the decision announced by President Recep Erdogan in March last year that Türkiye was pulling out of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, effective 1 July.
The accord is known as the Istanbul Convention, after the Turkish city where it opened for signatures in 2011.
Ms. Reem Alsalem said in a statement that officially, around one in four women in Türkiye has suffered physical or sexual abuse by their partners, according to latest available government data from a 2014 survey
She said that there are “hundreds of femicides” every year, pointed to serious underreporting of the issue, which was owing to a lack of confidence in protection mechanisms, widespread impunity and gender-related bias and discrimination.
Ms. Alsalem noted the problem has been compounded by increasing economic hardship and the cost of giving refuge to 4 million Syrian refugees under temporary protection.
She added that “almost all stakeholders” she had met in Türkiye during her just-finished official visit had unequivocally recognized the importance of the Convention in combating violence against women and girls.
Ms. Alsalem insisted that the Istanbul Convention was also “intrinsically linked” to Türkiye’s “identity, aspirations, and its destined role and standing regionally and beyond”.
She urged the Government to “reconsider” its decision to pull out of the Convention and continue to uphold its other international human rights obligations.
She stressed that implementation of domestic Turkish legislation protecting women from abuse “had been weakened by Türkiye’s withdrawal from the (Istanbul) Convention, including services currently in place for survivors of gender-based violence”.
The rights expert warned that perpetrators had been “emboldened” by the presidential announcement, effectively leaving victims “at increased risk of violence”.
“No society can truly prosper unless its woman and girls enjoy equality and freedom from violence,” Ms. Alsalem said.
“All stakeholders I met agreed that violence against women and girls has no place in Turkish society. Türkiye must therefore translate this belief into practice, by tackling impunity and prioritising the issue of violence against women and girls at the highest levels.”
Ms. Alsalem said besides gender based violence Türkiye had made “considerable progress” towards sustainable development goals, by taking fundamental steps towards eradicating poverty and increasing support for marginalized and disadvantaged sections of society, including women and girls.
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