At Least Nine Women Killed 'Under Protection' in Seven Months

*"Feminicides are political"

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According to the Legal Aid Report by the İstanbul Bar Association, 840 women have been granted protection this year.

In the first seven months of 2019, men killed at least 184 women, raped 31 women, forced 288 women into sex labor, harassed 138 women, abused 139 children, according to the bianet Male Violence Monitoring Report. The men also used violence against 312 women in the first seven months of 2019.

There were protection orders for at least nine of the 184 killed women, according to the report.

Aylin Moralıoğlu, a lawyer from the Legal Aid Center of the İstanbul Bar Association, says women are discriminated against and subjected to violence in all aspects of life. Violence against women is a violation of human rights, says Moralıoğlu.

"Legal aid is women's assurance"

"Legal aid provides citizens with access to justice, and most of all, it is the assurance of women's access to justice. It gives women the power to learn their legal rights, to be represented by a lawyer in the case.

"In the first eight months of 2019, 1840 women were given support by professional-trained lawyers from the Legal Aid Office of the İstanbul Bar Association for the requests for preventive and protective measures against violence upon law No. 6284. The number of applications related to law No. 6284 increases every year.

"Law No. 6284 is a very important legal gain that protects women from violence. It empowered women legally against the violence they suffered in public and private areas. The importance of the law is that it ensures that women can exercise their legal rights through the judiciary against violence against women, which is a violation of human rights."

Moralıoğlu says that the İstanbul Convention also emphasized that violence against women is the result of inequality between men and women, and reminded that the convention has a sanctioning power and has a binding, independent control mechanism.

She adds, "Law No. 6284, which is a result of the İstanbul Convention, provides that protective and preventive measures against violence against women and domestic violence are taken immediately, without paying any trial costs. The İstanbul Convention and law No. 6284 are to protect women from violence. Both laws are women's life assurance."

Obstacles to the implementation of the İstanbul Convention should be removed, the lawyer concludes.

What are the rights arising from law No. 6284?

1- Women who are subjected to violence may seek refuge from the state.

2- Under the law, women who are subjected to violence or threatened may request temporary protection (close protection).

3- A woman who has suffered violence or is in danger may request that the perpetrator be removed from the house, prevented from approaching her, her address be hidden, her identity and other relevant information be changed.

4- Women can request the violent person hands over his weapon to the police, temporary custody and maintenance support, temporary financial assistance.