Women’s platform says Turkey’s Parliament ‘performs poorly in women’s rights’

* Photo: Fatoş Erdoğan

Click to read the article in Turkish

Addressing an open letter to the Parliament on September 30, 2020, the Women's Platform for Equality (EŞİK) reminded the lawmakers of their responsibility for implementing the İstanbul Convention amid ongoing debates on Turkey's possible withdrawal from it.

In a statement about the issue, the EŞİK platform has said that "since then, it has not received any positive or negative response from Parliamentary Speaker Mustafa Şentop regarding male violence against women."

"We have also not seen that the Parliament has started working on the issue," the platform has further protested.

"We, as women, cannot accept being disregarded," the statement has read, informing the public that "starting from October 1, 2020, it started to closely monitor the works of the Parliament by specifically focusing on the implementation of İstanbul Convention and the steps taken or not taken to prevent violence and discrimination against women."

According to the statement, the works of lawmakers and the Parliament as a whole were monitored in the first 15 days of the Parliamentary year and "the results obtained by the platform indicate a cruel indifference in the history of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM)".

'The unfulfilled duties of the Parliament'

Referring to the Article 70 of the İstanbul Convention within this context, the platform has underlined that "the Parliament has not fulfilled its duty to inspect the implementation of İstanbul Convention", as stipulated in the related article of the convention.

It has listed the unfulfilled duties of the Parliament briefly as follows:

• The GREVIO (Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence) Report on Turkey dated October 15, 2019 has not yet been officially translated and has not been delivered to all MPs. It has not been shared with the government, ministries, judicial bodies, all local and national public institutions, universities, local administrations, political parties, occupational organizations, the media, the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the field of violence against women and other relevant groups; their own action plans and feedbacks have not been asked.
• Even though it is one of the first things that needs to be done by the Parliament, the GREVIO Report on Turkey has not been set as a special item on the Parliamentary agenda; no steps have been taken to ensure that Turkey determines its course of action/ action plan about struggle against violence by including all political parties at the Parliament in the process.
• No initiative has been taken to ensure that violence against women is prevented and İstanbul Convention is put into practice.
• Within the scope of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which starts on November 25 and continues till December 10 Human Rights Day with different events across the world, and within the scope of "September 16 Action Day for Struggle Against Violence Against Women, no announcements have been made as to the special sessions to be held on these occasions.

Equality Monitoring Results of the platform

The EŞİK's Parliamentary Monitoring Group monitored the works of the Parliament from October 1 to 15. They have shared the following results:

• The Parliament's duty to inspect the implementation of the İstanbul Convention was not fulfilled.
• The GREVIO Report on Turkey was not translated and it was not debated at the Parliament.
• The works and efforts about violence against women and the İstanbul Convention were not brought into the Parliamentary agenda.
• The Parliamentary Speaker made no statements, efforts, initiatives or even promises about the issue.
• No one talked about the issue while addressing the lawmakers at the General Assembly of the Parliament.
• Only one MP talked about it during his/her one-minute speech from his/her seat.
• Feminicides were mentioned at the General Assembly of the Parliament only for 57 seconds.
• There was only a single special moment at the General Assembly of the Parliament: The face masks of two women MPs that read 'Implement İstanbul Convention.'
• Only 2 of 34 bills, only 3 of 119 Parliamentary questions, only 1 of 33 Parliamentary inquiries and only 3 of 61 press statements were about women.

(EMK/SD)