Türkiye on Friday marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. At an event in Istanbul attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the government rolled out new chapters in its action plan on the issue.
Domestic violence dominates the agenda in Türkiye, with almost one lethal case reported every day in the country. In other cases, women escape with severe injuries. Türkiye provides protection for women and severe punishment for perpetrators in most cases, but domestic violence still prevails in the country.
Addressing the event organized by the Ministry of Family and Social Services, Erdoğan said, “A society that excludes women, treating them unfairly and dishonoring them through violence is a society that gave up its humanity.”
“Such societies bring about their own end,” he also said.
The president stated that Türkiye has come a long way in fighting violence toward women, “a bleeding wound for most of the world.”
“We cannot accept even one woman being exposed to violence or murders, and we need to raise the bar constantly in our fight,” he said.
He said that Türkiye became exemplary in the world with its work on this issue, from centers set up to monitor and prevent violence to social services for victims, shelters for women subjected to violence and support for victims, as well as awareness campaigns. “The Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Family and Social Services, the Justice Ministry and all other relevant institutions sincerely continue their efforts. We include everyone, from police to health care workers to members of the judiciary, teachers and students in our campaigns to fight against violence,” he added.
The president highlighted that they would continue to impose new regulations in 2023 that would facilitate access to judicial services for victims. He said public agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, universities and local administrations were also working more efficiently. “We attach importance to education, especially to improve the quality of studies toward violence targeting women in specialized institutions. We are improving the technical infrastructure in the fight against sexual violence. We are improving awareness on the issue with different messages catering to different members of society,” the president said.
He said that through constitutional changes, Türkiye pursued a “zero tolerance” approach to violence against women.
Speaking at the event, Family and Social Services Minister Derya Yanık stated that violence targeting women also affected families, and children in particular were among the secondary victims. “We are tasked with protecting everyone impacted. Today is a meaningful day but we cannot confine our work to highlight this issue to one day. We have to continue our struggle until the complete elimination of violence,” she said.
The minister emphasized that their work concentrated on “family.” “We have to work to ensure that families have healthy, happy members complementing each other, rather than families going through episodes of violence, unfair treatment and abuse,” she stated.
She cited past work of the government on the issue, including a 2006 regulation that ended the definition of killings as “honor” killings. Perpetrators of so-called honor killings were able to invoke laws providing more lenient sentences in the past if they proved that they acted to protect their “honor stained by the infidelity of spouses.” She also cited recent amendments to the Turkish Penal Code that ended the interpretation of existing laws in favor of defendants in crimes committed against women, including so-called “tie reduction.” “Tie reduction” is the colloquial name given to lenient sentences given by courts to defendants based on their good conduct and appearance during hearings. In some cases, judges hand down lower sentences even based on what a defendant wore to the courtroom, for example, a tie and suit, viewed as an outfit exhibiting respect for the court.
Yanık said Türkiye had already announced its 2021-2025 national action plan and it will be boosted next year with new steps, including the opening of seven new Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centers (ŞÖNİM). The ŞÖNİMs provide support and monitoring services for the prevention of violence and the effective implementation of protective and preventive measures.
These centers implement a one-stop model to operate 24/7, providing effective and fast service. Currently, they are present across Türkiye's 81 provinces with the aim of empowering women economically, psychologically, legally and socially.
The minister noted that the new phase in their action plan in 2023 will focus on social awareness, preventive services, coordination, access to judicial services and collection of data to examine the scope of violence. “Violence is a learned behavior and on this basis, we will expand the scope of our awareness work, to preschool students as well. So, we will try to show people, from an early age, that violence is not a means of ‘communication,’” she said.
Yanık stated that ŞÖNİM services will cover more people in 2023 and they would further expand rehabilitation and education services for perpetrators of violence. She said they expanded the capacity of electronic bracelet use for perpetrators by 50% and have also seen an uptick in women with access to KADES, a panic button app that allows women to alert authorities immediately against cases of violence.
The government will also raise awareness against “cyber violence” towards women, she said, referring to online stalking and other crimes.
More than five women or girls were killed every hour on average by someone in their own family in 2021, according to a new United Nations report on femicide. The report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crimes and U.N. Women says around 45,000 women and girls, 56% of the 81,000 intentionally killed worldwide last year, were murdered by intimate partners or other family members. It highlights that homes are not safe places for many women and girls. The figures show that in the past decade, the overall number of femicides has remained largely unchanged.
"Behind every femicide statistic is the story of an individual woman or girl who has been failed. These deaths are preventable," said U.N. Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.
Executive Director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crimes, Ghada Waly, said no woman or girl should fear for her life because of who she happens to be. "To stop all forms of gender-related killings of women and girls, we need to count every victim, everywhere, and improve understanding of the risks and drivers of femicide so we can design better and more effective prevention and criminal justice responses."
Asia recorded the largest number of gender-related killings with 17,800 deaths in 2021, according to the report. However, women and girls were more at risk of being killed by intimate partners or other family members in Africa. The rate of gender-related killings in the home was estimated at 2.5 per 100,000 of the female population in Africa, compared with 1.4 in the Americas, 1.2 in Oceania, 0.8 in Asia and 0.6 in Europe.
