Rights organizations: We are a party to İstanbul Convention

 "We will make you enforce İstanbul Convention" (by csgorselarsiv/Dilara Açıkgöz)

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Rights organizations have denounced Turkey's withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention with a Presidential decree in the middle of the night.

The Human Rights Joint Platform (İHOP), an umbrella organization of six rights groups in Turkey, released a joint statement today (March 22) and said, "We are a party to the İstanbul Convention."

The statement of the organizations has reminded the public that "until recently, the government bodies were still mentioning that 'Turkey was the first country to ratify the convention' in their action plans and periodical reports sent to all human rights mechanisms."

The organizations have said, "Attributing the failure to prevent and finally eliminate domestic violence and violence against women to a human rights treaty and sacrificing a convention that protects human dignity and guarantees the right to life for political interests means covering up the failure. One must not play domestic politics with Human Rights Treaties."

"Withdrawing from the İstanbul Convention means giving up protecting women from all types of violence, preventing, prosecuting and eliminating violence against women and domestic violence, eliminating all types of discrimination against women and ensuring material (actual) equality among men and women and protecting the victims of domestic violence and victims of violence against women," they have added.

Concluding the statement, the rights groups have said:

"We, as human rights organizations, are a party to the İstanbul Convention, which protects the women who live in this country and everyone who faces the risk of domestic violence; we will keep on struggling so that the convention is fully put into practice. We declare that we are on the side of women's movement that lays claim to the convention and we will keep on struggling together to lay claim to this convention."

Members of Human Rights Joint Platform (İHOP): Association for Monitoring Equal Rights (ESHİD), Rights Initiative Association (HİD), Human Rights Association (İHD), Human Rights Agenda Association (İHGD), Amnesty International Turkey, Citizens Assembly (YD)

What happened?

Turkey has withdrawn from the İstanbul Convention with a Presidential decree published in the Official Gazette on March 20, 2021.

The decree 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 decree 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 decree. (EMK/SD)