The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, the Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and other UN and regional human rights experts* today deeply regretted the decision by the President of Turkey to withdraw from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, the Istanbul Convention.
“This decision to withdraw from such an important instrument is a very worrying step backwards. It sends a dangerous message that violence against women is not important, with the risk of encouraging perpetrators and weakening measures to prevent it,” Dubravka Šimonović, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, said.
“This decision weakens protections for women’s well-being and safety and leaves them at further risk at a time when violence against women is surging all over the world. The Istanbul Convention is the most recent and detailed women’s rights instrument that, alongside the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action, provide a roadmap for the elimination of gender-based violence against women and girls.
“These instruments recognise gender-based violence against women as a human rights violation, and commit States to putting in place policies and legislation to eradicate it,” the experts said. “The implementation of the Istanbul Convention alongside other international standards had resulted in positive changes at the national level.”
In the last few months, political actors in Turkey have expressed concerns that the Convention “threatened the family”, in a misinterpretation of the term gender, used in the Convention. “On the contrary, the Convention provides Member States with tools to better protect women and girls and their human rights,” the experts said.
Turkey had been the first Member State to ratify the Convention, in 2012, followed by 33 others. The decision to withdraw was announced on 20 March 2021 by a Presidential decree, without debates in Parliament and society at large.
“As a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, a sister instrument to the Istanbul Convention, I would welcome a dialogue with Turkey to discuss the importance of the Istanbul Convention for working together on the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence against women at the national, regional and international levels,” said Gladys Acosta Vargas, Chair of the CEDAW Committee and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women.
“We call on Turkey to reconsider this decision and to conduct consultations with academia, civil society organisations, Parliament and society at large,” the experts said.
The experts also noted the increased risk of violence against women, particularly domestic violence, in the context of the COVID-19 restrictive measures in Turkey, with a particular impact on women and girls with disabilities and older women. They stressed the need for more, and not fewer, tools to prevent and eradicate gender-based violence in all its forms.
Information available indicates a rise in femicide in Turkey in recent years; the experts reiterate their call for the Government to collect and analyse data on femicide and establish a Femicide Observatory to prevent them.
“The present time calls for better implementation of international norms and standards, not for Turkey to dissociate from them,” the experts said.
The experts had previously expressed their concern regarding trends of pushbacks against women’s rights and on the relevance of the Istanbul Convention to eradicate violence against women.