Today Turkey will officially step down from the Istanbul Convention. The Ankara Campaign Group is one of the organisations that called on all women to take to the streets today to reclaim the Convention.

The decision that the "Council of Europe Convention on Prevention and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence", known as the Istanbul Convention, will be terminated in Turkey on 1 July was published in the Official Gazette on 30 April.

Dilek Yıldız, one of the executives of the Ankara Branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD), drew attention to the recent increase in violence against women who exercise their right to assembly and demonstration. She said that women joining the protests were threatened with rape and with death by social media users and added that they filed a criminal complaint against the police officers who used violence in Ankara. Yıldız called for those police officers to be dismissed.

Yıldız said: “We will continue to be on the streets for the Istanbul Convention, which is something we won as a result of the struggle of women and rebellion against the male state violence.”

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Ankara deputy Filiz Kerestecioğlu said: "We will not give up on the Convention because we this through struggle. The Istanbul Convention protects everyone from violence. It is not a convention that destroys the family institution, as some wants to present it. We need to stand together against this mystification. Women are strong together. We will keep the Istanbul Convention alive."

Background

With decree No.3718 announced in the Official Gazette on 20 March 2021 Turkey officially terminated being a party to the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence.

The Istanbul Convention, ratified by the Government of the Republic of Turkey in 2012, aims to protect women against all forms of violence, and prevent, prosecute and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence. It is the first and most comprehensive international treaty specifically addressing these issues and builds on the standards enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread human rights violations in the world. It is estimated that worldwide 1 in 3 women are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner during their lifetime – a number that has remained largely unchanged over the past decade.

In Turkey, according to the latest National Research on Violence against Women from 2014, 38 percent of ever-married women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. In its most extreme form, and often as the final act on a continuum of violence, hundreds of women are murdered every year. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a further escalation of violence against women and girls around the world, due to restrictions of movement, social isolation, and economic insecurity.