We Should Combat Violence against Women!
The Government Should Implement the İstanbul Convention!
25 November 2020
The UN declared 25 November, the day when Mirabal Sisters were assassinated in 1960, the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women” in 1981. Although it has been 60 years now since the murder of Mirabal Sisters, women are still being killed, subjected to violence, disregarded, disenfranchised. Yet women have always opposed such violence everywhere, they fought and are indeed fighting against violence. The history of violence, therefore, is at the same time the history of women’s fight and the stand women have taken against violence.
Violence against women has now spread to diverse areas, while women are still being affected by violence in physical, psychological, economic, sociological, and other terms. During the COVID-19 pandemic women have been victimized in economic and social areas as well. According to data provided by the Consumer Rights Association on 9 May 2020, “There are 24 million mothers in Turkey and 4.8 million of these mothers live under the hunger line while 14.5 million live under the poverty line.” Women robbed of their economic and social rights had to look for solutions by lodging applications before certain institutions. This state of affairs had its repercussions in applications before the Human Rights Association (İHD) as well. A total of 1,120 persons lodged applications before İHD’s central office via the Internet between January and October 2020. While 539 of these applications were about economic and social rights, 402 were lodged by women. The ages of these applicants varied between 16 and 80 and coincided with a very wide age range for women. Women, who have unequal opportunities as per men in the distribution of labor force, were forced to leave the areas within which they worked under precarious conditions as temporary house workers.
According to the “Global Gender Gap Report 2020” drafted by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Turkey ranks 130 out of 153 countries. The Middle East and North Africa Region, which Turkey is a part of, is the last among eight regions in gender equality with an average score of 60.5%. According to the report, it will take 100 years to close the gender gap or for women to have equal rights as men, while it will take 257 years for women to have equal pay with men. Turkey’s current economic and political structure does ignore gender equality norms and this mentality paves the way for further escalation of violence. Such mentality to keep women within the confines of domesticity curbs women’s presence in social life and employment. In order to see inequality in the representation of women in each and every area one merely needs to look at women’s political participation. Among 600 deputies in the parliament, only 102 are women. The official refusal to recognize the co-chairpersonship system in political governance is a result of this mentality. We have even witnessed authorities make “co-chairpersonship” look like a criminal offense in cases where elected co-mayors were unjustly and unlawfully removed from office and replaced by government appointed trustees. This situation reveals the fact that a major obstacle is raised before equal representation of gender in Turkey by the political power.
The primary area where women are subjected to violence is domestic violence. Women are killed, subjected to violence, abused and raped mostly by men closest to them. More than one women are murdered almost every day. Hundreds of women face violence and a great majority of these cases cannot be recorded. Women have come to believe that filing complaints are of no avail based on cases they have witnessed. The law enforcement, in many cases, send women back to the places where they had been subjected to violence because they are not trained to handle cases of domestic violence. Perpetrators are virtually awarded by such grounds as unjust provocation and time off for good conduct partially within the scope of cases where women filed complaints and subsequently heard before courts. The number of women’s shelters are not sufficient, they do not meet the needs of women, and women who have a limited time to stay in these shelters become vulnerable to violence once again after they leave these places. Women are left bereft economically and in terms of their safety of life. A statement by the Ministry of Interior that alleged that the number of cases about violence against women went down in 2020, during which the COVID-19 pandemic took the country by the storm, happens to be quite interesting. If the fact that women, who have to stay in their houses, do not file domestic violence complaints is interpreted as a decrease in numbers, it should be known that we are face to face with quite an alarming mentality problem.
Further, attempts have been made to terminate women’s vested right to alimony which is seen as unearned gain but in fact is sum which has to paid to women who have to take care of their children in shared economic responsibility.
The refugee influx that started with the 2011 civil war in Syria has also produced an area where women’s labor and bodies were exploited. Particularly refugee women from Syria and elsewhere who came to Turkey to work have been driven to sex work, subjected to violence; girls have been abused; women and children were subjected to exploitation as cheap labor. Cases of violence against refugee women cannot be brought before the courts because of language barrier, risk of unemployment, danger of deportation, fear of violence and many other reasons. Nevertheless the policy of impunity steps in in cases that make their way to the courts. As was the case in the murder of Nadira Kadirova.
Women face violence and rights violations in prisons as well. İHD has been receiving applications about this issue. Acts of violence are committed both in prisons and during transfers by the law enforcement. Authorities, however, do not take any action about applications on such acts of violence saying “No prosecution and investigation needed.” Authorities have not been coming up with solutions to problems concerning women with children held in prisons either.
LGBTI+ are still being subjected to hate crimes. Although there is no sexual orientation and gender identity based discrimination in Turkish legislation, laws are not implemented to this end. There is a quite high number of instances in which perpetrators of hate crimes and discrimination against the LGBTI+ have been granted impunity. The LGBTI+’s rights to life, housing, association, and assembly have continuously been violated and their right to access fundamental rights have been curbed.
The right to assembly, the most fundamental form of pursuit of rights within the women’s movement, is being incessantly restrained. Article 5 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders underlines that “For the purpose of promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, everyone has the right (…) to meet or assemble peacefully.” In spite of this, the ban on Saturday Mother’s peaceful vigils, which have been held in İstanbul’s Galatasaray Square since 25 August 2018, has virtually become the symbol of how authorities are against the struggle of mothers and women. Further, LGBTI+ meetings, assemblies and events have regularly been banned on such abstract grounds as “public safety, risk of inciting people to hatred and enmity, public order, prevention of crime, protection of others’ rights and freedoms.” İstanbul Governor’s Office banned 25 November demonstrations in 2019 and they could only be held under ample restrictions following negotiations. The governor’s office again banned the traditional Feminist Night March on İstanbul’s İstiklal Street on 8 March 2020, the police erected barricades blocking the way and used tear gas against women who wanted to pass while arresting women resorting to excessive use of force.
The state should take all measures to prevent all kinds of violence against women. Turkey signed the İstanbul Convention, or the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, in 2011. The state parties to the convention are monitored by a mechanism called GREVIO (Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence). GREVIO indicated in its Baseline Evaluation Report on Turkey issued on 15 October 2018 that the country did not engage in a holistic and systematic response on gender equality and violence against women. GREVIO also expressed its criticism on “discriminatory stereotypes” between genders adding that the reporting rates on gender-based violence remained low in the country. The experts expressed their alarm over the increasingly restrictive conditions experienced by civil society organizations, in particular independent women’s organizations. The smear campaign against the İstanbul Convention should immediately be put to an end within this framework and Turkey should fully commit to its responsibilities and duties prescribed in the Convention that are equivalent to provisions in its Constitution and cannot be changed under Article 90 of the Constitution. Moreover, provisions in Law No. 6284 on violence against women should be implemented.
We would also like to underline that the most effective tool to fight violence against women is the women’s struggle and we will persevere in our struggle to the full extent.
Human Rights Association
Central Women’s Commission