CHP’s Aysu Bankoğlu: We, women, won’t give up our rights

"İstanbul Convention saves lives" (by csgorselarsiv/Serra Akcan)

Click to read the article in Turkish

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has appealed to the Council of State against the Presidential decision withdrawing Turkey from the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence.

Accordingly, the party has demanded a stay of execution and the annulment of the decision that foresees Turkey's withdrawal from the convention which is widely known as the İstanbul Convention.

'President cannot terminate the convention'

CHP Bartın MP and Parliamentary Constitutional Commission member Aysu Bankoğlu has spoken to bianet about the CHP's application:

"In the morning of March 20, we woke up to the news that the İstanbul Convention, which is the guarantee of 42 million women's life safety, was abolished. With the decision of a single person, the Parliament was disregarded and the people's will was usurped.

"However, we all know that in the domestic law, a multilateral convention shall be abolished in a procedure in parallel with how it was adopted in the first place. You cannot say, 'I bypass a law that passed the Parliament, I don't care about the Parliament or the nation's will.'

"President cannot terminate a convention - in the field of human rights, fundamental rights and freedoms - by a unilateral declaration of will!

"The attempt to abolish the İstanbul Convention is against the Constitution, it is null and void. For this very reason, we, as the Republican People's Party, made our application for annulment today and submitted it to the Council of State, including our request for stay of execution.

"No matter how much they want to wander off the issue, the İstanbul Convention is a convention which obligates the state to protect women's right to life, prevent them from being subjected to violence/ harassment/ rape and being killed and penalize the responsible parties. Its main objective is to prevent violence against women in its all aspects.

'We, women, will live'

"In other words, it says, 'Prevent discrimination and human rights violations.' At this point, there is nothing undermining the family structure. We say this insistently: There is nothing else. But the state is obligated to protect women from all types of violence and take the necessary measures.

"The Convention has provisions foreseeing necessary measures to create an egalitarian society where violence cannot find the courage to come out. This attempt to withdraw from a human rights convention, which is a first in Turkey's history, is unacceptable. We don't accept it.

"This also needs to be known: Saying, 'We will protect women not on paper, but in consciences' means abandoning women to the conscience and mercy of the men who inflicted violence on them, harassed, killed and raped them. As women who believe in gender equality and human rights of everyone, primarily those of women, we will never give up our rights of 100 years, which were granted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to the Republican woman.

"We, women, will exist, we will live. We will keep İstanbul Convention alive!"

What happened?

Turkey has withdrawn from the İstanbul Convention with a Presidential decision published in the Official Gazette on March 20, 2021.

The decision in question said that "the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, which was signed by Turkey on May 11, 2011 and approved with the Cabinet Decree no. 2012/2816 on February 10, 2012, shall be terminated on the part of Turkey as per the Article 3 of the Presidential Decree no. 9."

Following this Presidential decision published at midnight, several social media users, women's rights defenders, lawyers and politicians, denounced the decision, recalling that the convention was unanimously approved at the Parliament and stressing that it is not possible for Turkey to withdraw from an international convention with a Presidential decision.

After the Presidential decision pulling Turkey out of the İstanbul Convention was met with criticisms and objections in both Turkey and around the world, the Communications Directorate of the Presidency released a written statement about the issue on March 22.

"As known, Turkey was the first signatory to the Istanbul Convention," the statement noted, arguing that the "İstanbul Convention, originally intended to promote women's rights, was hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality – which is incompatible with Turkey's social and family values. Hence the decision to withdraw."

The protests are still ongoing. (EMK/SD)