Women Organizations Facing Exclusion From Istanbul Convention Process

Women and LGBTI organizations declared that they're facing exclusion from Istanbul Convention process.

The request of Istanbul Convention Observation Platform [İstanbul Sözleşmesi İzleme Platformu], an entity formed by 77 independent women and LGBTI organizations, to enter to the Comittee who will select the Turkish representative of GREVIO - the auditing commission of Istanbul Convention - has been rejected. 

Women and Democracy Association (KADEM) and Women Healthcare Providers Association (KASAD) and Women Association Against Discrimination (AKDER) have been elected. 

Other than the three NGOs, the aforementioned committee will also have one representative each from Parliament’s Women Men Equality Commission, Parliament’s Human Rights Observation Commission, Council of Europe Parliamentarians Assembly, Family and Social Policies Ministry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Justice Ministry. 

Women rights advocates reacted against the selection of 6 members from public institutions in the forming of a 9 member committee as well as the selection of NGOs with no field experience and their criticism on certain articles of the convention as they were “against the Turkish family structure”. 

Women associations like Mor Çatı not invited to the meeting 

With Turkey one of its first signers and named as Istanbul Convention, “the agreement on the prevention of violence against women and domestic violence” has been implemented on August 1. 

The agreement was signed by 14 countries. In beginning of the week, Family and Social Policies Ministry organized a meeting in Ankara to determine the Comittee who will select the Turkish representative of GREVIO. 

While the ministry called certain women organizations, it initially rejected the joining request submitted by Istanbul Convention Observation Platform. 

Platform members headed to Ankara to attend the meeting, however they rejected the meeting on the ground that criticism was ignored and they weren’t given a chance to vote. 

Following the meeting, platform member Mor Çatı Shelter Foundation showed their reaction to the ministry with the following Twitter message: “Mor Çatı is struggling against violence against women for the past 25 years. Whose experience will drive the  GREVIO process?”

Independent NGOs: This committee was chosen to not apply the convention 

Istanbul Convention Observation Platform released a statement, reacting against the rejection of their proposal.

“This committee was chosen to not apply the convention,” the statement said. 

The platform also underlined that the process violated Istanbul Convention itself and the ministry’s methods were not acceptable. 

“Turkey’s violation of the Convention from now on is the proof that we will be confronting new violations in the days to come, Istanbul Convention is a gain of women and it can’t be applied according to the arbitrary decisions of the current government,” they said. 

“We are announcing with this statement that the blocking of our participation doesn’t only violate Istanbul Convention but also Council of Europe’s Principles of Good Practice Regarding the Participation of Civil Society in the Decision-Making. We are announcing that we will take the matter to all national and international mechanisms. 

Platform announced its GREVIO committee candidates

Istanbul Convention Observation Platform announced its candidates for GREVIO committee on December 16.

Among the candidates included Council of Europe Women Men Equality Council, Expert Committee on the Violence Against Women, CEDAW Committee, Council of Europe Duty Force Towards Violence Against Women, UN Chamber of Women’s Progress as well as Turkey’s prominent women rights activists including Canan Arın, Prof Dr. Feride Acar, advocate Hülya Gülbahar, Pınar İlkkaracan, Şehnaz Kıymaz and Prof. Dr. Yakın Ertürk. (ÇT/BM)

* This article has been compiled from various article on bianet in Turkish.