"We are a conservative democratic party. The family is important to us" said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and announced in the same breath to replace the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs by the newly established Ministry of Family and Social Policies.
This decision came despite massive protest of women organizations and a signature campaign with 3,000 participants submitted to the prime ministry on 6 June.
According to the statement, a number of institutions will be deployed under the roof of the new ministry, i.e. the General Directorate of the Status of Women (KSGM), the General Directorates of Family and Social Services, of Children Services, of Services for Disabled and the Elderly and of Social Aid.
Furthermore, the Head Department of Veterans and Families of People who Died while Serving the Turkish State will be established within the structure of the ministry in order to closely follow the problems of the two aforementioned groups.
Breach of international agreements and legal aquis of EU
Critics put forward that this application opposes international agreements signed by Turkey and also the legal acquis of the European Union (EU). This view was advanced by Hülya Gülbahar from the Platform for Equality Mechanisms, Dr Selma Acuner from the Ankara University Research Centre for Women's Issues (KASAUM) and Çiğdem Aydın, Board President of the Association for Support and Education for Women Candidates (KA.DER).
The international agreements signed by the Turkish government render Turkey responsible to pursue policies that strengthen gender equality in order to end violence and discrimination against women.
By removing the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs and including the KSGM into the structure of the Ministry of Family and Social Policies, the mechanism for ensuring gender equality is being eliminated. It means that women are not being positioned as individuals but as an element of the family instead.
Emma Sinclair Webb, Turkey Researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), expressed her concern about the application. "This is a very risky step to take in a country where violence against women is that common", she said.
Gülbahar: The end of gender equality policies
"The European Women Lobby initiated a related campaign in cooperation with approximately 4,000 organizations. The campaign will quickly spread all over the globe".
"According to the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), it cannot be seen that violence against women stems from problems within the family. The decisions of the international court underline that violence against women is an indicator of human rights violations, discrimination and inequality of men and women. At least five women are killed in Turkey every day. Nevertheless, the women's ministry is being lifted. This heralds the end of state policies related to gender equality", Gülbahar said.
She continued: "Violence against women is not only experienced within the family. Discrimination in political representation and participation and sexual harassment at work are also forms of violence. Gülbahar indicated that a state and an organization that abandon the generation of solutions and politics in this field constitute a clear breach of all the international agreements signed by Turkey".
Acuner: Women policies erased from agenda
"On 7 April in Strasbourg, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers chaired by Turkey approved the new Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Turkey was the first country to sign the convention on 11 May in Istanbul" Acuner reminded.
"The crucial point of the convention is the fact that violence and discrimination against women is defined as a 'human rights violation'. The convention read, 'Violence in a country is the result of inequality of men and women in that country'".
"One of the texts this agreement was constituted upon was the conviction of Turkey by the ECHR in the case of Nahide Opuz. Turkey was convicted because of the failure to protect Nahide Opuz from violence and because of a lack of effective measures for the prevention of discrimination. It was announced in the decision that Turkey needed to work on abolishing inequality and strengthening women policies", Acuner remarked.
"The establishment of the Ministry of Family and Social Affairs is an indicator for abolishing women policies. The KSGM is the only official mechanism in charge of making policies to strengthen gender equality. It now becomes an ineffective unit without authority under the new ministry as a result of the application. After this , it will be very difficult to access sufficient monetary and human recourses to carry out efficient work. This means that women policies are being erased from the state's agenda".
Acuner noted that the application was contrary to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Four Women's Conference started in 1985 at the Nairobi World Women Conference and the Beijing Platform for Action. Moreover, it contradicts Directive 2006 of the EU, she said.
Aydın: Going to address the President
On the doorstep to the parliamentary elections on coming Sunday, Aydın described the attitude of the AKP government as dictatorial and an enforcement of their own policies while disregarding the power of the new parliament.
"The Prime Minister was persistent when he listened to our voices and demands. We persist in our demand for a Ministry of Equality. We are working on forwarding our objections to President Abdullah Gül and to the commissions and the Parliamentary General Assembly".
"We do not want women to be perceived as an element of the family. We want to be individuals and citizens who start a family when we want to do so".
Sinclair-Webb: A big leap backwards for Turkey
The HRW report issued on 4 May revealed that about 42 percent of all women in Turkey experience systematic violence. Women and girls could not be protected from violence within the family, the report disclosed.
In the context of the struggle against violence against women, Sinclair-Webb emphasized the importance of establishing a Women's Ministry or a Ministry of Equality. "The government has to intervene directly in order to tackle this problem".
"The agreements signed by Turkey, the legal aquis of the EU and the severity of the situation indicate that urgent steps have to be taken to prevent discrimination against women. This application is a big leap backwards". (BB/VK)
